Chandigarh, February 24 Swarajdeep Singh, a pilot from Amritsar in Punjab, was among the seven people killed in a helicopter crash in Jharkhand, officials said.
The Beechcraft C90 aircraft, registered VT-AJV, belonging to Redbird Airways Pvt Ltd, crashed shortly after takeoff from Ranchi while en route to Delhi. There were five passengers and two crew members on board.
The crash on Monday was the second in less than a month, involving a plane operated by a non-scheduled airline. On January 28, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four others died in a plane crash near Baramati.
Swarajdeep (31), who had joined the company about seven months ago, was a member of the crew of the air ambulance.
He was from the Gobind Nagar area in Amritsar.
Upon hearing the news of Swarajdeep's death, relatives arrived at his residence in Amritsar to express their condolences to his family.
He is survived by his wife, his four-month-old son, and his parents. Swarajdeep got married about one and a half years ago.
His family members were deeply saddened and were struggling to come to terms with the loss.
Swarajdeep's friend, Simardeep Singh, said that he had known Swarajdeep for 15 years. He said that before taking off on Monday, Swarajdeep had called his family, telling them that he would call after landing in Delhi.
However, when the family tried to call him again after some time, they could not connect, said Singh while speaking to reporters in Amritsar.
Later, they saw the news on TV about the plane crash and found Captain Swarajdeep Singh's name among the dead, Singh said.
According to Singh, Swarajdeep had met him last Saturday when he visited Amritsar. They had planned to go out together during his next visit, he said.
He always respected everyone, said Singh.
