Trainer Aircraft Skids Off Runway at Solapur Airport, Pilot Escapes

A trainer aircraft skidded off the runway at Solapur on Thursday during take-off, police said, adding the pilot was unhurt in the incident.

The Tecnam P-Mentor aircraft operated by Redbird Flight Training Academy experienced a hard landing and skidded off the runway around 2.30 pm, police said.

It is a two-seat, low-wing single-engine light aircraft built by Tecnam in Italy and is engineered for ab-initio through instrument flight training, a step-by-step career pathway that takes students with zero



prior flight experience and guides them all the way through obtaining their Private Pilot License and an Instrument Rating.

The woman trainee pilot was flying solo on a cross-country flight and escaped unhurt, the official said.

The aircraft came to a stop in a nose-down, angular position off the paved runway surface. Visuals from the spot showed airport and police personnel near the aircraft.

Fire services, an ambulance and police personnel reached the airport soon after the accident.