A training aircraft of the Madhya Pradesh Flying Club which was on a sortie crashed at the Devi Ahilyabai Holkar airport here on Wednesday, killing one pilot and injuring another seriously.
The incident occurred at 11.30 am when the Flying Club’s plane Cessna 152 crashed near the boundary wall of the airport during its landing, informed city airport’s acting director Sanjay Agrawal.
The two-seater single engine plane was being piloted by the club’s instructor Pavandeep Singh and pilot Arshad Qureshi, both aged around 30, who were performing ‘touch and go’ exercise when the mishap occurred, he said.
The aircraft took off for the first time around 10.39 am and returned to the airport in ten minutes. It proceeded for another round, but around 10.55 AM it lost contact with the Air Traffic Controller (ATC), Agrawal said. Soon, an alert was sounded and fire brigade employees, jawans of the Central Industrial Security Force and a rescue team were rushed in search of the plane, which was found crashed near the airport’s boundary wall located about 500 meters away from the runway at 11.10 am.
The two injured pilots were immediately taken to Mohak Hightech Speciality Hospital where Qureshi who had sustained serious injuries died while undergoing treatment. According to hospital’s Neuro Surgery Department’s Head Dr Shrikant Rege, Qureshi had suffered serious injuries on his head, face and both the legs. He also had lost a lot of blood as well.
“We tried our best to pull him out of the serious condition but he collapsed finally,” Rege said.“The exact reason behind the accident is not yet known,” Flying Club’s Chief Instructor Mandar Mahajan said adding that at this point of time he would not be able to say anything on the issue and said that the Director General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) probe would clear the same.
Mahajan denied that Qureshi was a trainee pilot. He had been a Commercial Pilot license holder and has been working for the MP Flying Club for the past three years. Noor Mohammad, father of Qureshi who rushed to the hospital said only three years back his son had completed his pilot training and since then had been working as assistant manager cum trainer with the MP Flying Club.
The condition of the other pilot Pavandeep Singh, an instructor with MP Flying Club, who also suffered serious injuries in the incident, was stated to be critical till filing this report.