Air ambulance crashes with seven on board

An air ambulance with seven people onboard to Delhi from Ranchi crashed in a forest near Simaria in Jharkhand's Chatra district on Monday. Search and rescue teams have been dispatched, but there was no immediate confirmation about casualties, officials said. An Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) team is also being dispatched for investigation.

The ambulance lost contact with air traffic control around 20 minutes after takeoff at about 7.10 pm. People on board, included a 41-year-old patient and two crew members.

"The aircraft was airborne from Ranchi at 19:11 IST. After establishing contact with Kolkata at19:34 IST, aircraft lost communication and RADAR contact with Kolkata at approximately 100 NM South-East of Varanasi," read a statement from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Chatra SP Sumit Kumar Agarwal said that the crash site is deep in a forest. "The police team is yet to reach the spot, so we are not in a position to confirm the number of casualties."

Delhi-based non-scheduled operator Redbird has six planes in the fleet, including the one which crashed on Monday evening.