Chamrajnagar: Small plane crashes to ground, triggers panic among residents
Chamarajanagar (Karnataka), Jun 1 (PTI) A Kiran trainer aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed in an open field at a village in the district on Thursday but the two pilots made it out safely after ejecting from the plane before the crash.
The training aircraft, which took off from the air force station in Bengaluru, crashed this morning at Bhogapura village.
It was good fortune that aircraft hit the ground on barren land and not in the nearby village, a villager said, adding it would have been catastrophic if the plane had crashed into the village.
District officials said the pilots, identified only as Tejpal and Bhumika, sustained minor injuries. No casualties were reported.
According to the IAF, the pilots were on a routine training sortie when the incident occurred. A court of inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of accident.
"A Kiran trainer aircraft of the IAF crashed near Chamrajnagar, Karnataka today, while on a routine training sortie. Both air crew ejected safely. A Court of Inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident," the IAF tweeted.
Senior district officials and an IAF team reached the spot along with the fire and emergency services personnel.
As soon as the plane crashed with a loud noise, villagers rushed to the spot and found the mangled aircraft engulfed in flames and billowing smoke.
Besides alerting the local police and the fire brigade, they also rushed to the spot where the two pilots were seen ejecting and coming down with the help of parachute.
Villagers noticed the two pilots lying on the ground. Quickly, they created a temporary shed for them.
Police officials rushed to the spot, cordoned off the area and put up a makeshift tent for the injured pilots.
The district officials in turn informed the IAF authorities in Bengaluru who then rushed to the spot in a special helicopter and airlifted the two injured pilots.
According to the Additional Deputy Commissioner of the District Katyayani Devi, one of the pilots sustained injuries in the spine while the other injured her mouth.
"The IAF helicopter has airlifted the two pilots to Bengaluru," she added.
Panchayat Development Officer Rame Gowda said he was in the office when he heard a blast.
"After hearing the sound, I came out and enquired. I got to know that an IAF aircraft had crashed. I rushed to the spot and saw the crashed aircraft in flames. I informed the police and the fire and emergency services department about the incident," Gowda told reporters.
According to the Chief Fire Officer of Mysuru P S Jayaramaiah, a senior fire brigade officer, a man by the name Mahesh Prithvi informed them about the crash at about 12.05 pm and soon various teams were rushed to the spot.
An eyewitness said when they offered assistance to the pilots, they said they have informed the IAF station along with sharing the GPS location of the crash site to them.
Two days ago a Redbird Training Aircraft made an emergency landing in an agriculture field soon after taking off from Sambra airport in Belagavi. The pilots escaped with minor injuries.
News coming in of a trainer aircraft crashed in #Chamrajnagar. More details awaited. #Karnataka pic.twitter.com/uGn8tUtwa1
— Imran Khan (@KeypadGuerilla) June 1, 2023
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Media dinner shooting suspect wrote about targeting of administration officials, Trump says
Washington (AP): The man accused of trying to storm the ballroom at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner with guns and knives had written about targeting Trump administration officials, and his family raised concerns with law enforcement before the event, President Donald Trump said Sunday in an interview on Fox News Channel.
The accused gunman's family had alerted police in Connecticut, Trump said, revealing new details about a chaotic encounter that disrupted one of Washington's glitziest annual events the night before.
The suspect, identified by law enforcement officials as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, was expected to face criminal charges on Monday from the Justice Department, whose acting leader, Todd Blanche, said the suspect travelled by train from California and checked in as a guest days earlier at the Washington hotel where the Saturday night gala dinner was held with its typically tight security.
Law enforcement officials who have interviewed Allen's relatives, examined the gunman's electronic devices and his writings preliminarily believe he intended to target administration members in attendance at the dinner.
He attempted to charge into the cavernous ballroom at the Washington Hilton but was tackled to the ground in a violent scene that resulted in shots being fired, Trump being hurried off the stage and guests ducking for cover beneath their tables.
“It does appear that he did in fact set out to target folks who work in the administration, likely including the president,” Blanche told NBC's “Meet the Press.”
The suspect is believed to have purchased the two firearms he carried within the last couple of years, Blanche said. He is not being cooperative and is expected to face multiple charges on Monday.
Video posted by Trump showed the suspect running past security barricades as Secret Service agents ran toward him. One officer was shot in a bullet-resistant vest but was recovering, officials said. The gunman was taken into custody and was not injured, but was being evaluated at a hospital, police said.
“He failed,” Blanche said on CBS's “Face the Nation.” “Law enforcement did their jobs.”
Authorities believe the suspect fired the shot that hit the Secret Service officer, who is expected to make a full recovery, Blanche said.
“He's going to be great, he's going to be fine, and thank God he was wearing a bulletproof vest,” Blanche said Sunday on ABC's “This Week.”
Social media posts that appear to match the suspect show he is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer.
A May 2025 profile photo of Allen appears to match the appearance of the man in a photo of the alleged attacker being taken into custody that was posted Saturday night by Trump.
The photo, posted to the social networking site LinkedIn, shows him in a cap and gown after graduating with a master's degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Allen earned a bachelor's degree in 2017 in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He listed his involvement there in a Christian student fellowship and a campus group that battled with Nerf guns.
The shooting at the security barricades happened minutes after the event got underway.
The Secret Service and other authorities swarmed the room as guests ducked under tables by the hundreds. Gasps echoed through the ballroom as guests realised something was happening. Hundreds of journalists immediately got on phones to call in information.
“Out of the way, sir!” someone yelled. Others yelled to duck. From one corner, a “God Bless America” chant began as the president was escorted offstage. Outside the hotel, members of the National Guard and other authorities flooded the area as helicopters circled overhead.
After an initial attempt to resume the event, it was scrapped for the night and will be rescheduled.
Trump was unusually conciliatory after what he saw as a third attempt on his life in less than two years. He suggested that his personal politics had made him a repeated target, but he also called for unity and bipartisan healing in an increasingly violent world.
“It's always shocking when something like this happens. Happened to me, a little bit. And that never changes,” Trump told reporters in a hastily organised news conference at the White House late Saturday.
