Govt says 50-year-old trainer aircraft crashed due to inadequate fuel near Belagavi airport

New Delhi, Feb 8 (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.

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. PTI RAM IAS MR