plane wreckage found in the hills

Balaghat:

A trainer aircraft crashed and caught fire in a mountainous area of ​​Madhya Pradesh’s Naxal-hit Balaghat district on Saturday, killing a flying instructor and a woman trainee pilot, officials said.

The aircraft belonged to IGRAU (Indira Gandhi National Flying Academy), which was on a training flight, and prima facie bad weather caused the crash, said an official from Gondia in neighboring Maharashtra.

Balaghat Superintendent of Police Sameer Saurabh said two badly charred bodies were recovered from the spot under Lanji police station.

A charred body of a person (believed to be pilot Mohit Thakur) was found near the crash site on the hills of Lanji and Kirnapur area, about 40 km from Balaghat district headquarters, he said.

“We received information (about the accident) around 3:45 pm. Since the area comes under Naxal-affected area, security forces were called in. Other personnel reached the spot after cordoning off the area. We recovered the bodies of the deceased. recovered.” Flight instructor and female pilot who are badly burnt. The spot comes under Lanji police station”, Saurabh said.

Deputy Inspector General of Police Anurag Sharma told PTI that the trainer aircraft took off at 3.06 pm from Birsi airstrip in Gondia district bordering Balaghat. It lost contact with the Air Traffic Control (ATC) at 3.11 pm.

“It is widely believed that the burnt body was that of pilot Mohit Thakur (around 25 years),” he said, and female trainee pilot Vrikshanka Maheshwari (around 20 years) is missing.

“Prima facie both have died in the accident,” he said.

The trainer aircraft belongs to IGRAU (Indira Gandhi National Flying Academy). It crashed into the hills near Bhukkutola village in Balaghat district at around 3.30 pm, killing a flight training captain and a woman trainee, IGRAU Administrative Officer Satya Kumar told PTI in Gondia.

“The training aircraft with flying instructor Captain Mohit had taken off on a routine sortie from Birsi airport around 3 pm. It crashed due to bad weather in the hills near Bhukkutola village,” he said.

“The aircraft caught fire, in which the bodies of Captain Mohit and the trainee pilot were badly mutilated. After receiving the information, a fire brigade team and a rescue team from Birsi along with other concerned officials rushed to the spot,” he said.

Kumar said the wreckage of the plane was found on the hills. The villagers were the first to reach the spot.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)