The Hindu : Front Page : Two pilots killed in aircraft crash

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 09, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Front Page

Front Page

Two pilots killed in aircraft crash

Staff Reporter

Cessna-152 develops snag, crashes in populated residential locality in Hyderabad

Photo: K. Ramesh Babu

ILL-FATED FLIGHT: The tail of the aircraft is all that remains atop a shed after it crashed in Hyderabad on Monday.

HYDERABAD: A trainee pilot and his instructor were killed instantly when their Cessna-152 aircraft crashed into a heavily populated Lingaiahnagar area, about three to four kilometres from the air strip of the Begumpet airport on Monday morning. It was a providential escape for hundreds of residents of Lingaiahnagar, as the two-seater crashed in the middle of a narrow road.

But for the presence of a Ganesh pandal that occupied almost half the road, there would have been heavy traffic on the 30-foot by-lane leading to the local Government school and Idgah. Once the panic-stricken locals could gather their wits, they rushed to the burning fuselage to rescue the two pilots.

They managed to extricate one of them, later identified as the instructor, Niraj Jain. As they thought he was alive, an 108-ambulance was summoned to rush him to Gandhi Hospital. However, he was declared dead on arrival. The other dead student pilot was P. Srinivas, a resident of Pradhampuri colony near Kapra. Jain belonged to New Delhi.

It was the second sortie for the yellow-coloured Cessna belonging to the government-run Andhra Pradesh Aviation Academy. It took off at 10.45 a.m. from ‘Alpha Gate” (towards Fatehnagar) and barely gained altitude when something went wrong. The aircraft that reportedly developed a snag began losing altitude and apparently the instructor tried to land it on the road stretch near Lingaiahnagar.

A group of youngsters noticed the plane, which according to them, was spluttering. “We knew something was wrong. It was shaking like a leaf in a storm. Perhaps, the pilots wanted to land it in the Government High School ground or the Idgah,” recalled Raju and his friends, who witnessed the crash.

The Cessna then hit the top of an electric pole along the Idgah compound wall uprooting it. “The pilot had apparently lost control as it was further losing altitude,” Raju explained. As the youngsters ran in the direction of the plane, it struck a parapet wall of a house, got stuck in the hanging bunch of electric and cable wires and crashed on the road right in front of the house. Fortunately, there was no power supply at that time.

Srinivas, who was living in a portion of the house hit by the aircraft, rushed out on hearing a deafening noise followed by cries for help. “I tried to pull out the student entangled in the fuselage.” He sustained burns as some hot oil leaking from the engine fell on him.

Within 15 minutes, fire tenders from Sanathnagar reached the spot and doused the flames. The Ganesh pandal made of bamboo, located a few feet away was partially burnt.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page