Uttar Pradesh news: 21-year-old trainee pilot dies in crash
A young trainee pilot was killed after the four-seater aircraft he was flying crashed in Uttar Pradesh's Azamgarh on Monday. Officials suspect the aircraft crashed due to bad weather. The small plane crashed into a farmland around 11.30 am, Rajesh Kumar, District Magistrate of Azamgarh, told news agency Press Trust of India.
"The plane had taken off around 10.30 am from a training institute and was being controlled by a trainee pilot. There was only one person on board," Mr Kumar added.
The pilot has been identified as Konark Saran, 21, a resident of Palwal in Haryana, a spokesperson of the training institute said. The aircraft belonged to the government-run Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi (IGRUA), located in Amethi, officials confirmed.
"Saran had 125 hours of flying experience as a trainee, including over 52 hours solo. He was a skilled trainee pilot with a very good track record. Prima facie it appears that his aircraft got caught in dense cumulonimbus clouds, which led to the incident," the spokesperson said, adding that he was flying a "four-seater SOCATA TB 20 aircraft with fully equipped avionics and related instruments".
The incident is "most unfortunate and all due procedures are being carried out," the training school spokesperson added. Officials of the Azamgarh administration and the police have inspected the crash site.
(Input from ANI & PTI)