The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Sunday said it had shot down the flying instructor and grounded the aircraft after a trainee pilot was injured at Kanpur’s Chakeri Airport during night instructional flying on Friday.
“On 26.06.2026, a Garg Aviation (FTO) twin-engine Tecnam P2006T VT-NBV aircraft participated in a night instructional flight at Kanpur (Chakeri) Airport. The aircraft was a flight instructor and a female student on board. After landing, the trainee pilot alighted from the aircraft with the engine running. The female student sustained back injuries due to collision with the running propeller,” the Civil Aviation Regulatory Authority said in a statement.
“She has been admitted to a hospital in Kanpur. The instructor in question has been removed from flight training duties pending investigation. Further, the DGCA has issued directions that the aircraft involved in the incident should not be used pending investigation. The DGCA said it is investigating the matter.”
“We are in the process of determining the exact sequence of events that led the trainee pilot to attempt to exit the aircraft before ensuring that both engines were shut down… Standard operating procedures require both engines to be completely shut down before any pilot exits the aircraft. This is a basic safety practice taught from the beginning of flight training,” said Capt. Rajeev Bhalla, director of aviation safety at Garg.
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Sure enough, the Tecnam P2006T aircraft manual states: “…since the main door is located in the propeller disk correspondence, its operation is limited to the engine off state.
In fact, in order to prevent injuries to the crew, an electromechanical device locks the door latch when the left engine is running. The pressure switch senses the engine oil pressure and allows electricity to be supplied to the solenoid that operates the door lock mechanism. This prevents the latch from being opened when the left engine is running, but if necessary, the device can also be manually overridden to operate from either the inner or outer door.
When asked how she opened the door, Bhalla told HT, “The student used the emergency system through which the door could be opened, according to our internal investigation. She had no specific reason to do the same. The incident occurred around 8.40 pm and she was subsequently admitted to a nearby hospital.”
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The student, who was to complete her flight training in a few days, will have to stop flying for at least a month, Bhalla said.
But industry insiders have raised questions about the use of emergency bypass. “If a student had used an emergency, there should have been plenty of time for the teacher to act immediately and prevent the incident from happening. CCTV cameras should reveal what went wrong,” said a senior teacher who requested anonymity.
Sure enough, the DGCA, on January 30 last year, transferred the Director of Flying Training after it received complaints alleging that the Kanpur-based Flying Training Organization (FTO) Garg, in collusion with officials, conducted operations without adequate visibility, endangering trainee pilots and nearby commercial aircraft. This was done after the Association of Flying Training Organizations (AFTO) wrote to the regulatory body to highlight alleged safety-threatening rule breaches by the FTO.
