Trainer and trainee die as Tecnam P2006T crashes near Kanpur’s Ganga Barrage
VT-NBV, operated by Garg Aviation, took off at about 11.30 a.m. and came down 20 minutes later in a field at Natthupurwa. Instructor Sachin Bhatia of Gujarat and trainee Abhishek Pujari of Karnataka were killed. DGCA had grounded the same airframe after a June propeller incident.
Kanpur1 min read
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A Tecnam P2006T twin-engine trainer registered VT-NBV crashed on Thursday in a field at Natthupurwa, near the Ganga Barrage and about five nautical miles from Kanpur Civil Airport. Both people on board died. Police identified them as instructor Sachin Bhatia, from Gujarat, and trainee pilot Abhishek Pujari, from Karnataka.
The Civil Aviation Ministry said the aircraft, operated by Garg Aviation Ltd. of Kanpur, was on a local training flight. Additional Commissioner of Police Vipin Tada said it left the ground around 11.30 a.m. and came down about 20 minutes later. Commissioner Raghubir Lal said Bhatia had about 3,000 flying hours. Fire and police crews cordoned the wreckage for investigators.
A three-member Directorate General of Civil Aviation team is at the site. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau will write the cause report. Garg Aviation did not answer calls on Thursday. The company has said the airframe, acquired in 2023, had no known maintenance defect.
The same registration was grounded in June
On 26 June a trainee was badly hurt leaving VT-NBV with a propeller still turning at Chakeri. Two days later DGCA said the aircraft should not fly pending that inquiry. It later returned to the training circuit. Thursday’s crash puts that return, and the school’s oversight of a four-seat Italian twin used for multi-engine work, inside the same file.
India’s private flying schools have absorbed a large share of the demand created by airline hiring. The Tecnam P2006T is sold as a cheap twin: two Rotax engines, retractable gear, constant-speed propellers. Cheap does not reduce the duty on an operator that has already had one serious incident on the same registration in a single monsoon.
AAIB reports take months. Until then the facts that can be written are the names, the time, the field, the registration, and the June grounding that did not keep VT-NBV on the ground.
