Faridabad, May 26 (IANS) Residents of the Parvatiya colony near Sector 22 here woke up due to a deafening roar and saw a huge fire-ball, as an air ambulance aircraft crashed over two houses of this congested colony late Wednesday night.
Eyewitnesses said that aircraft broke into nearly three pieces and its main part fell on the roof of one of the ill-fated house. Fire tenders faced much difficulty to cross the congested streets and reach the accident spot. It delayed the rescue work.
"It was all very scary. We woke up with a thunderous sound and saw flames erupting outside our house. The crashed aircraft had also damaged the grills of the boundary wall of our house. Fire brigade vans reached the spot late as they faced difficulty in crossing narrow streets of our colony," said one of the eyewitnesses, who is the resident of Parvatiya colony here.
"So far we have seen police officials taking away the bodies of at least nine persons. However, few people, who are residents of houses on which the aircraft crashed, are still missing. The rescue work is on at war scale," said another eyewitness.
The plane belonged to Apollo hospital and was being used to bring Rahul Raj, 28, a jaundice patient from Bihar's Betiya district to Delhi when the tragic accident occurred.
Seven people, including two pilots, were killed when the air ambulance with a critically ill patient on board, crashed in a densely populated area of Faridabad on the outskirts of the national capital, barely minutes before it was to land here, police and aviation officials said. Three people died on the ground and one was injured.
The aircraft fell on the one-storey house owned by Shobharam. His family lived on the ground floor while four Nepal nationals lived as tenants on the first floor.
The tennants luckily survived. But the 55-year-old Shobharam lost his wife, daughter and daughter-in-law in the accident. These people were rushed to a hospital where the doctors declared them brought dead, said Rajesh, an eyewitness.
"Before the plane crash, there was a thunderstorm. Within no time, the plane fell on the house," claimed a policeman, who was barely 200 metres away from the crash site when the accident occurred.
As the plane crashed and fell on the house, it created a deafening sound. The plane's fuel set the Shobharam's house on fire. At least five to six fire tenders had to be pressed into service to douse the flames, said eyewitnesses.
The deceased included Rahul Raj, the patient, and his relative Ratnesh, two doctors - Arshad and Rajesh Jain, a male nurse Seeral, and pilot Harpreet and co-pilot Manpreet besides the house owner Shobharam's wife Vedvati, daughter Savita, and daughter-in-law Rani.
Meanwhile, a technical aviation team will visit the crash site Thursday morning to probe what exactly led to the plane crash.