AVIATION/ AIR CHARTER PC12 HIT "WALL OF WIND" BEFORE CRASHING

The AIR CHARTER SERVICES Pilatus PC12 that crashed on Wednesday evening in Faridabad, India, got trapped in such bad weather that it suddenly stopped moving and started plummeting. All 7 passengers and crew onboard the PC12, along with 3 people on the ground, were killed when the aircraft went down into a residential area at 10:35pm, as it approached the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. Earlier in the day, the weather service had issued a forecast of strong winds for Wednesday evening. At 8.30pm, it issued a weather warning and within 90 minutes, a massive dust storm hit the Airport. Media reports say that the wind was so strong, that several large passenger aircraft approaching Delhi from the east found it difficult to stick to their path and were being pushed towards the south. Controllers at Delhi observed the PC12 approaching and described the conditions for the Pilatus as "hitting a wall" in the air. They said the blip on the ATC radar indicated the air ambulance approaching Delhi and then it suddenly stopped moving. As the controllers scrambled to contact the Pilot of the aircraft, the dust storm outside Airport reached a speed of 60kmph. "The pilot reported bad weather and since the blip was not moving, we would only conjecture that the wind was so strong that the aircraft was unable to fly," said one controller in an interview. The aircraft was at 24000 feet when it stopped moving and controllers saw it descending and ascending on radar at a very rapid rate for a few seconds like it was being tossed about and then suddenly the PC12 plummeted down to 2000ft. Moments later, it disappeared from radar. About 3 minutes later, controllers were notified that it had crashed. India's DGCA is investigating. Investigators did say today that the aircraft was not equipped with black bloxes. The DGCS is also interviewing other Pilots who were in the air that evening, including those onboard passenger planes, to help gain more information on the weather and how their aircraft responded.