ROURKELA: Amid the ongoing investigation by teams of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) into the crash-landing of a nine-seater commercial aircraft near Rourkela, Commerce and Transport Minister Bibhuti Bhusan Jena on Monday visited the mishap site to take stock of the situation.
Speaking to mediapersons, Jena said the government is concerned about the cause of the mishap. After ascertaining the reasons behind the crash, firm steps will be taken to prevent such incidents in future.
The DGCA and AAIB teams are investigating into the incident and the government has extended necessary support for treatment of the six injured persons. Two injured passengers have been shifted to Mumbai and the government is prepared to extend best treatment to the others, he said.
On being asked about the abrupt withdrawal of services of the ATR-72 aircraft of Alliance Air on Rourkela-Bhubaneswar route from mid-July in 2025, the minister said the 72-seater plane was introduced to provide air services to Rourkela and Jharusguda. He has already written to the authorities concerned about the disruption of services.
Jena further said the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and SAIL are operating the Rourkela airport. It has almost been finalised that AAI would take over the airport. Transfer of land ownership would allow it to fully run the airport.
On Saturday afternoon, the nine-seater Cessna Grand C208B aircraft VT-KSS of IndiaOne Air, a scheduled commuter operator, crash-landed on an open field at Kansar near Jalda A block, about eight km from Rourkela. The flight took off from Bhubaneswar and was scheduled to land at Rourkela airport at 1.18 pm. It was at a height of around 2,000 feet, but crashed at 1.15 pm. Four passengers and two pilots suffered injuries in the incident.
The nine-seater aircraft had launched operation on Rourkela-Bhubaneswar route on December 5 last year under the Regional Connectivity Scheme with Viability Gap Funding (VGF) support from the Odisha government.