A trainer aircraft skidded off the runway at Solapur Airport in Maharashtra on Thursday afternoon, November 12, and came to rest in a nose-down position, airport officials said. The woman trainee pilot on board escaped unhurt, and fire and police personnel rushed to the spot.
Source: ANI via Devdiscourse
The aircraft was a Tecnam P-Mentor, a twin-seat, single-engine trainer operated by the Redbird Flight Training Academy. It had taken off from Baramati, where the academy is based, at around 1:15 pm on a solo cross-country flight, and made a hard landing at Solapur at around 2 pm, an academy spokesperson told the Times of India. The hard landing broke and bent the aircraft's nose wheel, bringing its front portion into contact with the runway as it slowed down.
Source: Times of India via Zaobao India
News agency PTI, citing officials, put the incident at around 2:30 pm and said the aircraft veered off the paved surface of the runway. Visuals from the scene showed the plane tilted with its nose down, and fire tenders, an ambulance and police personnel reached the airport immediately after the incident.
Source: PTI via The Daily Jagran
Early reports differed on the exact phase of the flight: ANI and the Times of India described a landing accident, while PTI-based reports described the aircraft skidding during take-off. The trainee was taken to a local hospital for a medical check-up, according to reports. Awaaz Punjab is reporting only the points all accounts agree on — the skid, the nose-down stop and the pilot escaping unhurt — until the official sequence is established.
An official at Solapur airport, which is managed by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), said the aircraft was still on the runway and could be removed only after a Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) team inspects it and gives clearance. The official added that there are no scheduled aircraft movements at Solapur for now, so regular flight operations are not affected.
Source: Times of India via Zaobao India
The Solapur incident comes months after a similar mishap at the Baramati airstrip in Pune district on August 9, when a Carver Aviation trainer aircraft carrying a pilot and a cadet left the paved surface during landing emergency exercises; both occupants escaped without injuries in that incident as well, PTI-based reports noted.
Source: PTI via The Daily Jagran
What happens next: the DGCA inspection will establish the official sequence of events and the cause of the hard landing, and the academy's aircraft will be moved off the runway only after that clearance. Further details are awaited, officials said.
Source: ANI via Devdiscourse