Training aircraft crashes in Vidarbha; 2 killed

The training aircraft that crashed at Gondia, Vidarbha.

A flying instructor and a trainee pilot were killed when the aircraft they were flying crashed in the Vainganga river in Gondia district of Vidharba in Maharashtra at around 9 a.m. on Wednesday.

Information available from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said that the four seater aircraft was a Diamond 42 or DA42-VI belonging to the National Flying Training Institute, Gondia that was being used for training.

District officials said that flight instructor Captain Rajan Gupta was accompanying trainee Hemashree 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 when it crashed. There are no survivors,” Kale said.

Officials said that 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. The crash site is close to Adani Power’s coal-based thermal power plant at Tiroda.