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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Trump says EU has until July 4 to approve last year's trade deal or it will face higher tariffs
Washington (AP): President Donald Trump has said in a social media post that goods from the European Union would face higher tariff rates if the 27-member bloc fails to approve last year's trade framework by July 4.
The announcement on Thursday appeared to be a deadline extension after the president said last Friday that EU autos would face a higher 25 per cent tariff starting this week. Trump made the updated announcement after what he described as a "great call" with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Still, the US president was displeased that the European Parliament had yet to finalize the trade arrangement reached last year, which was further complicated in February by the US Supreme Court ruling that Trump lacked the legal authority to declare an economic emergency to impose the initial tariffs used to pressure the EU into talks.
"A promise was made that the EU would deliver their side of the Deal and, as per Agreement, cut their Tariffs to ZERO!" Trump posted. "I agreed to give her until our Country's 250th Birthday or, unfortunately, their Tariffs would immediately jump to much higher levels."
It was unclear from the post whether Trump was implying that the tariff rates would jump on all EU goods or the increase would only apply to autos.
His latest statement indicates he might be backing away from his earlier threat on EU autos by giving the European Parliament several more weeks to approve the agreement.
Under the original terms of the framework, the US would charge a 15 per cent tax on most goods imported from the EU.
But since the Supreme Court ruling, the administration has levied a 10 per cent tariff while investigating trade imbalances and national security issues, aiming to put in new tariffs to make up for lost revenues.
