Lucknow/New Delhi: In a shocking case, a trainee pilot was injured while deboarding a twin-engine trainer aircraft of Garg Aviation with the propeller running at Kanpur’s Chakeri Airport on Friday (June 26) night. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has taken a serious view of the accident, which has left the 22-year-old Riya Batra hospitalised with back injuries, and has ordered a probe.While boarding and deboarding trainer aircraft with the propeller running is not allowed, aviation industry insiders say it is a common practice among some flying training organisations (FTOs) in India and in some other countries as well. This is usually done to hasten the swapping of trainees between training sorties—meaning one cadet alights from the aircraft after landing and another quickly boards it to take off with the instructor. What happened in this case will be known after the probe is completed. In a statement, the DGCA said: “On June 26, Garg Aviation (FTO) twin-engine Tecnam P2006T aircraft (VT-NBV) was engaged in night instructional flying at Kanpur (Chakeri) Airport. A flight instructor and a cadet were on board the aircraft. After landing, the trainee pilot deboarded the aircraft with the engine running.”“The cadet received injuries in her back due to being hit by the running propeller. She is admitted to a hospital in Kanpur. The instructor involved has been off-rostered from flying training duties pending investigation. Further, the DGCA has directed that VT-NBV aircraft should not be utilised pending the probe. The DGCA is investigating the matter,” the statement added.According to Garg Aviation Safety Manager Group Captain Rajeev Bhalla, the accident took place at around 8.40 pm after the aircraft had landed and was coming to a halt. He said the cadet, 22-year-old Riya Batra, “attempted to get out of the aircraft before both engines had been switched off,” while standard operating procedure requires the engines to be off before doing so. Why she did so will be part of the probe, he added.“The flight instructor on board, Captain Raunak, who has around 5,000 flying hours of experience, noticed the cadet attempting to step out. He immediately shouted at her to stop and simultaneously switched off the engines. However, before the engines came to a complete stop, one of the propellers struck the cadet on the back and lower back region, injuring her. We initiated emergency medical assistance and then shifted her to a private hospital,” Bhalla said.Cadet pilot Riya Batra reached the Kanpur hospital, where she was admitted early Saturday morning. The safety manager said the cadet is recovering and that the “injuries are not expected to end her aviation career. She is likely to resume flying within 2–2.5 months.”Speaking to TOI, Sumit Patel, a local friend of injured cadet pilot Riya Batra, said, “According to Riya, she sustained injuries after coming into close contact with an aircraft propeller upon completing her night sortie. This information was also conveyed to me by Garg Aviations Ltd.”“However, fearing that the hospital might refuse to begin treatment or that the incident would immediately involve the police because the injuries were related to an aircraft, Riya’s batchmates at the aviation academy requested that I report the incident as a road accident. They all were scared and are young. They asked me to state that she had sustained injuries after her two-wheeler skidded, so that police involvement could be avoided,” he said.“Following their request, I wrote a memo stating that Riya had been injured after her scooty skidded at around 9 pm in the Kanpur Cantonment area,” he added.
