Pilot injured as training aircraft crashes near village in Pune

Pune: A training aircraft belonging to a private aviation academy crashed near a village in Maharashtra's Pune district on Thursday evening, injuring the pilot who was the only one on board the plane, police said.

Police had earlier in the day said besides the pilot, one more person was on board the plane, and after the crash, they were rushed to a nearby hospital. However, they later maintained that information gathered by them indicated besides the pilot, no one else was inside the aircraft.

The aircraft, belonging to the Redbird Flight Training Academy, crashed near Katfal village under Baramati taluka of the western Maharashtra district, said the police.

"A training aircraft belonging to the Redbird institute crashed near Katfal village at around 5 pm. The pilot sustained injuries in the crash. We are verifying whether there was a co-passenger on board the plane when the incident took place," said Prabhakar More, senior inspector, Baramati police station.

The cause of the crash was not yet known.

More said a team of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will visit the crash site on Friday and launch a probe into the accident.

"After the DGCA team visits the site, it will be revealed what caused the crash. We have also sought some details from the academy," the police officer said.