In a tragic incident, a trainee pilot has died in a plane crash in the southern Indian state of Telangana. The incident reportedly took place at around 11 am this morning. Details about the crash are still emerging at this point, with most reports suggesting that the student pilot was flying the aircraft alone.

Fatal crash

According to a report by The Hindu, a female trainee pilot in her late 20s tragically lost her life this morning when her aircraft crashed near Thungathurthy village in the Indian state of Telangana. It is being reported that she was training with Flytech Aviation Academy, a Hyderabad-based flight school.

The District Superintendent of Police says that the trainee pilot was flying a Cessna 152 aircraft – commonly used for flight training purposes – and took off from the airfield at around 10:30 am.

While a proper investigation will reveal the cause of the crash, only eyewitness accounts are being reported presently. According to one, the pilot was the lone occupant of the two-seater aircraft, which crashed at around 10:50 am.

The report quotes two eyewitnesses describing the incident as,

“It looked like the aircraft lost control after hitting something in the air, may be the high electrical lines of the 133kv transmission tower nearby. The parts fell all around the place and made a sound of an explosion.”

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Preliminary reports suggest that the aircraft hit an electrical pole and spiraled out of control. Initially, some believed that two people died in the crash as the plane wreckage had two seats. But so far, there’s been confirmation of one person dying in the incident.

Authorities to investigate

India is home to several flight schools, which train future pilots for airlines in the country. While COVID may have cast doubts over the recovery of the aviation sector, there’s still a substantial number of pilots being trained in the country.

There have been other incidents in the past, claiming the lives of student pilots. An NDTV report about a trainee pilot killed in Gondia in 2017 quotes a DGCA official saying that the agency is made aware of anywhere between 10 and 20 incidents involving airplanes from flying clubs/academies in India.

As such, an incident like this requires a thorough investigation by the relevant authorities. India’s Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia expressed his grief over the accident and informed that an investigation team had been sent to the crash site.

So far, there have been no comments from Flytech Aviation Academy.

It’s heartbreaking to hear a student pilot losing her life like this. Our condolences to her family.