What happened
On the night of the accident, an aircraft departed from Pune at 19:28 hours. The flight proceeded without incident until approximately 19:43 hours, at which point the aircraft began a rapid descent accompanied by increasing airspeed. Despite efforts by the pilot to recover the aircraft from this dive, the plane continued to lose altitude.
The aircraft eventually impacted the backwaters of the Ujjaini Dam, located near Indapur village, approximately 129 nautical miles east-southeast of Pune. The impact caused the aircraft to break into several fragments. There were no survivors among the occupants on board.
Findings
Investigations determined that the aircraft encountered severe turbulence while flying through cloud cover. This led to a rapid loss of altitude and the onset of a spiral. The crew failed to identify the nature of the situation promptly, which resulted in an improper recovery attempt; specifically, the pilot pulled back on the control column instead of first leveling the wings.
Several contributing factors were identified, including:
- Pilot disorientation and a failure to recognize the severity of the flight conditions.
- The possibility that the aircraft elevator may have jammed.
- Potential fatigue due to long intervals between night flights for the captain.
- A possible temporary malfunction or sluggish response from the attitude direction indicator (ADI).