An instructor and a trainee pilot died as a training aircraft crashed soon after it took off from the Government Aviation Training Institute, Birasal Base, in Odisha’s Dhenkanal district on Monday morning.
The deceased have been identified as instructor Sanjay Jha and Anish Fatima. Other details of the victims are being collected.
“Trainees come to Birasal Airstrip for a limited period of time. After a few practical training sessions, they go back. The crash happened on campus itself just after the aircraft took off. We are investigating the incident,” Anupama James, Dhenkanal Superintendent of Police, said over phone.
Ms. James said the aviation training was being conducted at the airstrip for the past one year. The institute had no residential facilities at Birasal, she said.
