A trainer aircraft skidded off the runway while taking off at Dhana airstrip in Madhya Pradesh's Sagar district on Saturday afternoon but the trainee pilot who was flying solo did not suffer any injuries, police said.
The aircraft, a Cessna 172, belonged to Chimes Aviation, a private aviation institute which had been banned from using the airstrip, 20 km from here, after one of its aircraft crashed last year and two people onboard were killed. But the ban was lifted later.
The incident took place around 3 pm on Saturday. Rahul Sharma, Chimes Aviation's local administrator, told PTI that the 22-year-old trainee pilot was safe.
The aircraft skidded off the runway and reached a patch of land full of shrubs, eyewitnesses said. Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said a probe team was being sent to the spot.
“Just got the news of a crash of a Cessna aircraft (solo flight) that belonged to the Chimes Aviation Academy in Sagar, MP. Fortunately, the trainee is safe. We are rushing an investigation team to the site,” he tweeted.
The incident came on the heels of the crash of a trainer aircraft in Maharashtra's Jalgaon district on Friday in which the flight instructor was killed.
In March last year, the Madhya Pradesh government had banned Chimes Aviation from using the Dhana airstrip after one of its trainer aircraft crashed on January 3, 2020, killing two persons on board.
The ban was imposed after the Sagar district administration allegedly found the private academy flouting the norms. But the ban was later lifted, local sources said.
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