Training aircraft makes hard landing at Maharashtra’s Solapur airport, video shows plane stuck on runway | India News

A training aircraft made a hard landing at Maharashtra’s Solapur airport on Thursday, following which it was stuck on the runway. No casualties have been reported in the incident.

Screengrab of a video showing the training plane stuck angularly at the runway.The hard landing incident happened when the student pilot was doing her solo cross-country flight. “Lady student pilot was doing her cross-country solo flight and she had a hard landing and the aircraft was stuck on the runway. No one was injured,” Karan Mann of the Redbird Aviation Training Academy said.

A purported video of the incident shows the aircraft, a Tecnam P Mentor, stuck at an acute angle, with a medical team, fire brigade personnel and security officials taking stock of the situation. An ambulance and a fire engine were also seen at the spot.

The trainee was identified as Jyoti Tanwar, news agency PTI reported.

Solapur district collector S. Karthikeyan said, “We have shifted the pilot to hospital immediately. A psychometric test will be conducted. The area has been cordoned off and will remain so till the safety audit is completed. The aircraft will remain closed for all operations until then.”

The damaged aircraft has been cordoned off following the incident. Police personnel, airport staff, fire services and an ambulance arrived at the airport soon after the accident.

The aircraft came to a halt in a nose-down, angular position after leaving the paved runway. Visuals from the site showed airport and police personnel gathered around the damaged aircraft.

Police initially said the incident had occurred during take-off but later clarified that the aircraft skidded off the runway while landing.

The Tecnam P-Mentor is a two-seat, low-wing, single-engine light aircraft manufactured by Italian company Tecnam. It is designed for flight training, from the initial stages of flying instruction to instrument flight training.

The aircraft is used to train beginners through different stages of pilot certification, including obtaining a Private Pilot License and an Instrument Rating.

In December last year, a Tecnam P-Mentor trainer aircraft operated by Redbird Flight Training Academy crashed near Suktara airfield in Madhya Pradesh.

The aircraft reportedly lost engine power while making its final approach during a routine circuit and landing check, forcing the instructor to attempt an emergency landing.