A flying instructor and a trainee pilot were killed when their aircraft crashed in the Vainganga river in Gondia district of Maharashtra on Wednesday.
Officials from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said the four-seater aircraft, Diamond 42 or DA42-VI, belonged to the National Flying Training Institute, Gondia. The duo had taken off from Gondia’s Birsi airport at 9.05 a.m.
District officials said the flight instructor, Captain Rajan Gupta (35), was accompanying trainee Hemashree Kalyan (24), of Delhi, on a solo test sortie. Gondia Collector Abhimanyu Kale told The Hindu that the aircraft had crashed on the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh border. “There were two persons on board. Both died on the spot,” Mr. Kale said.
Officials said the aircraft was on one of its usual sorties and had flown about 22 nautical miles, or 34 km, from the National Flying Training Institute.
Entangled in wires
Amit Jadhav, in-charge of Khairlanji police station, said the aircraft, while crossing the river at low height, got entangled in wires spread across to measure the water level.
A team of the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s Air Accident Investigation Board (AAIB) will visit the crash site on Thursday for a probe.
