The deceased have been identified as flight instructor captain Rajan Gupta (35) and a trainee pilot Himani Kalyan (24)
A flying instructor and a trainee female co-pilot of National Flying Training Institute (NFTI), Gondia were killed after a training aircraft — in which they were flying — crashed in the Wainganga River bordering Gondia district of Maharashtra and Balaghat district in Madhya Pradesh (MP) on Wednesday morning.
The deceased have been identified as flight instructor captain Rajan Gupta (35) and a trainee pilot Himani Kalyan (24). The train — who hailed from Delhi —was doing an 18-month training course and it was her last test.
According to the police, the aircraft had taken off from Birsi Training Centre of Gondia airport. On reaching near the river, the aircraft crashed after hitting the wire of a ropeway — that was used by a construction company — on Wainganga river at Mahalgao-Deori (Gondia) Vidarbha area, where it collapsed. The aircraft broke into three and oil spill was visible in the river. It was a four-seater aircraft — Diamond 42 or DA42-VI — operated by National Flying Training Institute, Gondia for training purposes.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has begun an inquiry into the matter and the team will be reaching there to examine the debris of the plane.
"We have registered the Accidental Death Report(ADR) in the matter and have also recorded the statement of the eyewitnesses. However, the exact reason of the crash can not be ascertained as the black boxes that help investigators to determine what happened in an airplane accident is missing from the aircraft. The DGCA team will be reaching to Gondia on Thursday," said a police officer from Dawaniwada Police Station.
"The aircraft was on one of its usual sorties and had flown about 34 km from NFTI in Birsi, after which it lost contact with Mumbai Air Traffic Controller (ATC) at around 0940 hours," the officer added.
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