This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.

This 23-Year-Old Risked Her Life To Save Ailing Father In Air Ambulance Crash

This 23-Year-Old Risked Her Life To Save Ailing Father In Air Ambulance Crash
Security personnel secure the site where an air-ambulance, carrying seven passengers, crash landed after losing both its engines, according to local media, in New Delhi, India May 24, 2016. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee
Anindito Mukherjee / Reuters
Security personnel secure the site where an air-ambulance, carrying seven passengers, crash landed after losing both its engines, according to local media, in New Delhi, India May 24, 2016. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee

Twenty-three-year-old Juhi Roy had only seconds to realise their plane was about to crash-land. She was on her way from Patna to Delhi to get her father treated for a brain haemorrhage. When the pilot threw open the door, asking everyone to get out as fast as they could in case the plane exploded, she began pulling her father's stretcher from one end, while he lay there, unconscious, reported The Times of India.

It was the pilot, Amit Kumar, who came to her help. Together, the two dragged Roy's father out, safely depositing him under a tree far away from the plane. However, the oxygen cylinder which was helping Roy's father stay alive was still in the plane, and despite warnings that the aircraft with its 400 litres of high-octane fuel in it could explode any instant, the MBA graduate ran back to retrieve the cylinder, where she grabbed her father's medical files and money for the hospital bills too.

As she ran out to safety, she called 100 to inform the police.

Indian investigators inspect a small C90 aircraft, used as an air ambulance, that crash landed in the outskirts of New Delhi, India, Tuesday, 24 May, 2016.

Seconds To Decide

It was Kumar's presence of mind that helped avert a disaster. While the reason behind the malfunctioning of the aircraft is still unclear, he had to make several difficult decisions, with no time to spare. It was around 2.20 pm on that fateful Tuesday when the plane's first engine died. Within 15 minutes, the second had sputtered to a stop.

Since they were still several metres away from the airport runway, his only option was to attempt crash landing in a secluded field. He told TOI how the Beech King Air C-90A plane jumped three feet into the air after first hitting the ground, only to skid 100 metres to a stop.

Close
This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.