Sources close to the team conducting the preliminary probe said technical malfunction and high velocity winds are suspected to have caused the crash last night of the Swiss-made Palitus PC 12 aircraft, which had the capacity to carry nine passengers and two pilots.
The aircraft of Air Charter Services India Private Limited crashed just 15 minutes before landing at the Delhi IGI airport last night killing seven people onboard and three -- all women -- on ground.
The sources said that the small single-engine turboprop plane could not withstand the heavy wind and storm in the area and the pilots probably lost control, leading to the crash last night.
Only 60 per cent of the entire aircraft, including part of its fuselage and the tail, have been found but the remaining portion, including the cockpit, has been completely damaged and charred in the blaze, they said.
The Flight Data Recorder and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) or the black box are not installed in small planes like this, the sources said.
A six-member DGCA team has been inspecting the crash site, conducted wrecakge spotting and took photographs to study the impact, how the aircraft landed, when and where it hit the houses and where the bodies were found.The team also conducted Longitude-Latitude readings and mapping through the Global Positioning System equipment of the crash site.
The Inspector of Inquiry, appointed by the Civil Aviation Ministry, would take charge of all the material evidence including the entire wreckage and hand it over to the enquiry panel set up today.
During the probe, the DGCA officials would also go through the maintenance record and other documents pertaining to the aircraft.
As per the DGCA records, the turboprop single engine plane was manufactured in 2005 and was registered this year in January. It has a capacity to carry nine passengers and two crew members in economy class configuration.
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