Chatra: Nearly three weeks after an air ambulance crashed in Chatra district, its second engine was recovered from a forested area on Sunday.The engine was found in the Patthar Paniya forest near Kasiatu forest under Simaria police station limits, around 1 km from the crash site where the aircraft went down on Feb 23.According to police, local women who went to the forest to collect mahua flowers first spotted the engine and informed authorities. Officer-in-charge of Simaria police station, Surya Pratap Singh, said the recovered part was kept in safe custody and investigators were informed.The air ambulance crashed in the area on Feb 23, killing all seven people on board — the pilot, co-pilot, a burns patient, his wife and their teenaged relative, a doctor, and paramedical staff. Following the crash, search operations were under way to locate missing parts of the aircraft.As per aviation rules, smaller aircraft below a certain weight are not mandatorily required to have cockpit voice recorders or flight data recorders, commonly known as a black box. The absence of these devices made the investigation more challenging.An officer in Chatra said investigators are now relying on conventional and scientific methods to determine the cause of the crash. The last communication between the pilot and air traffic control in Ranchi and Calcutta is being analysed. Forensic examination of the recovered debris and engine parts will also be carried out to check for possible technical failure.Officials said the recovery of the second engine is expected to provide crucial clues in the ongoing probe. Earlier, parts of the wreckage were already sent to Delhi for detailed investigation.Even Jharkhand health minister Irfan Ansari on Saturday informed in the Assembly that the state govt will soon provide adequate compensation to the victims of the air ambulance crash.Responding to a question raised by BJP MLA from Panki Shashi Bhushan Mehta regarding the delay in compensation to the victims’ families, Ansari said the govt is in the process of ensuring that the affected families receive financial assistance at the earliest.
