Govt says 50-year-old trainer aircraft crashed due to inadequate fuel near Belagavi airport
New Delhi (PTI): An over 50-year-old Cessna 172 trainer aircraft of Redbird Flight Training Academy made a force landing in Karnataka on Sunday due to inadequate fuel and both pilots are safe, the civil aviation ministry said.
The aircraft VT-EUC, which was flying from Kalaburagi to Belagavi crashed landed in an open field near Vijayapura and the site is around 50 to 70 kilometres from the Belagavi airport.
The flight instructor and a trainee pilot were onboard the aircraft, which broke into three pieces after the crash landing, sources said.
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In a statement on Sunday evening, the ministry said the force landing happened "due to suspected fuel starvation experienced by the aircraft" and that the plane was manufactured in 1975.
The aircraft's certificate of registration with Redbird was issued on May 23, 2023 and the certificate of airworthiness was issued on September 20, 2023.
According to the ministry, Airworthiness Review Certificate (ARC) was issued on August 1, 2025 and is valid till August 3, 2026.
ARC is issued after inspection of the particular aircraft to ensure that it is fit to fly.
The Pilot In Command (PIC) had 734 hours of flying experience.
Redbird Flight Training Academy has 48 planes in its fleet and its Flying Training Organisation (FTO) approval is valid till July 22, 2030.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) approved the academy as a FTO on July 23, 2020, as per the statement.
The ministry said "further investigation will be carried out by DGCA/AAIB (Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau)”.
Meanwhile, the pilots who were injured in the accident are Captain Kunal Malhotra, who is an Assistant Flight Instructor (AFI) at Redbird Aviation, and trainee pilot Goutham Sankar P R.
A senior official at the Redbird Flight Training Academy told PTI that after the crash, the pilots underwent medical checkups and both are safe.
Prima-facie it looks like that the Pilot-In-Command and the Trainee Pilot forgot to uplift enough fuel for the flight as a result of which there was the forced landing of the aircraft, the official said.
There was no official statement from the academy.
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Man held for raping minor stepdaughter in Uttarakhand's Kotdwar
Kotdwar (PTI): A man was arrested here for allegedly raping his 13-year-old stepdaughter, police said on Sunday.
The 32-year-old accused was arrested from Najibabad Road on Saturday and later sent to judicial custody on court orders, they said.
According to police, the minor's mother had lodged a missing person complaint on Friday, stating that her daughter had left home without informing anyone at around 7 am on February 5.
During the investigation, police analysed CCTV camera footage from nearby areas and found that the girl had gone to her grandmother's house.
The grandmother told police that the girl was extremely frightened and did not want to return home due to alleged harassment. She later left the girl with an acquaintance, from where police safely recovered her.
After gaining the girl's confidence, police said she disclosed that her stepfather had raped her on the night of February 4, following which she ran away from home the next morning.
A case has been registered against the accused under Sections 65(1) and 75(2) (rape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Sections 3 and 4 (sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
