Training aircraft crashes in Kanpur, killing pilot and trainee

A training aircraft crashed in a field in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, on Thursday, killing both the pilot and the trainee on board. The incident occurred during a training flight, with the twin-engine, four-seater aircraft going down shortly after takeoff.

According to police and officials, the crash took place in the Nattha Purwa locality, also described as the Ganga Barrage area, near the banks of the Ganga river. The aircraft had taken off from an airfield in Kanpur Cantonment at approximately 11:20 a.m. and crashed a few minutes later. One source reported the time as around 11:50 a.m. Local residents and rescue teams reached the scene and worked to extricate the seriously injured pilots from the wreckage. They were rushed to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared them dead on arrival.

The victims were identified as Abhishek Pujari, a trainee pilot from Karnataka, and Sumit Bhatia, a resident of Gujarat. Sources indicated that Bhatia, the instructor, had approximately 3,000 hours of flying experience. The aircraft belonged to a private aviation training institute based in Kanpur, identified as Garg Aviation.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will investigate the...