HYDERABAD: In a tragic incident, a trainee woman pilot and an instructor were killed when the aircraft they were flying crashed in a cotton field at Sultanpur village of Vikarabad district, around 100 km from Hyderabad on Sunday. Bad weather is suspected to have caused the accident. The victims were identified as Amanti Kaur, 22, from Punjab, and Prakash Vishal, 24, from Delhi.
The aircraft, a Cessna 172, belonged to Rajiv Gandhi Aviation Academy, owned by Wings Aviation Private limited, a flying institute in Hyderabad. It was on a training flight from Begumpet to Gulbarga.
Primary inquiries revealed that it took off around 11.15 am, and was in contact with the Air Traffic Control (ATC) at the Begumpet airport till around 11.55 am when it lost contact. The aircraft suddenly went rogue while flying over the fields at Sultanpur village. It flew from Bantwaram in the direction of Sultanpur, and suddenly took a sharp turn behind and crashed in the fields.
Alerted by the villagers, police and revenue authorities rushed to the crash site, where they found scattered pieces of two bodies along with the wreckage of the plane.
Inquiries revealed that Prakash recently graduated as a pilot and had a valid license, while Amanti joined the academy a couple of years ago. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation and the Telangana State Aviation Corporation Limited will conduct a detailed probe into the incident.
A post-mortem examination of the two bodies was conducted at the crash site and the bodies were handed over to the academy.
The police cordoned off the area and the fields where the debris was scattered. After a preliminary inquiry, the wreckage of the plane will be shifted to the academy for further investigation. Telangana State Aviation Corporation Limited managing director VN Bharat Reddy said the DGCA is yet to start a probe into the incident.
DGCA sources said that only after an initial inquiry would it be known if the crash was due to a technical error or bad weather. However, till the inquiry is concluded, a report is submitted to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, and further orders are received, there is a possibility of suspending the academy’s operations. Officials of the academy did not respond to calls from this newspaper.