The training aircraft which hard-landed in Solapur airport
The incident involving the single-engine aircraft Tecnam P-Mentor, a twin-seater, took place around 2 pm. The aircraft had taken off from Baramati, where the academy is based, around 1.15 pm with the trainee pilot, who has 160 hours of flying under her belt, on board. “The incident happened around 2 pm. The aircraft is relatively new and was acquired by the academy from the manufacturer in Italy in 2025,” the spokesperson said. Baramati, around 150 km from Solapur by air, is home to two flying training organisations — Redbird Flying Training Academy and Carver Aviation.
Sources said that she was learning to land during her training. Confirming the incident, an academy spokesperson said the trainee pilot, Jyoti Tanwar, was safe and had not sustained any injuries. Sources said the aircraft’s nose got stuck on the runway following the damage, which also resulted in the front tyre of the aircraft bursting. Anjani Kumari, the director of Solapur airport, which is managed by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), said the aircraft was yet to be removed from the runway. After its hard landing, its front tyre burst,” she said.
The hard landing resulted in the aircraft’s nose wheel breaking and bending, causing its front portion to come into contact with the runway as it slowed down. It was a hard landing which resulted in damage to the nose wheel. We are currently coordinating with the Solapur airport authorities to retrieve the aircraft. The academy spokesperson added that the aircraft had eventually come to rest on its front body after the damaged nose wheel gave way. “It can be removed only after a Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) team inspects the aircraft and gives clearance. There are no scheduled aircraft movements at Solapur for now. The aircraft didn’t veer off the runway. Both use the Baramati airstrip for pilot training and also handle non-scheduled flight operations. The airstrip is managed by the Maharashtra Airport Development Company Limited (MADC). The incident comes amid a series of mishaps involving training aircraft in and around Baramati. In Aug, a training aircraft belonging to Carver Aviation veered off the table-top runway at the Baramati airstrip during a training exercise. Both occupants escaped unhurt in that incident too. Last Aug witnessed another incident when an aircraft of Redbird Academy hard-landed and veered off the runway, resulting in the trainee pilot sustaining minor injuries.
The trainee aircraft which hard-landed at Solapur airport The training aircraft which hard-landed in Solapur airport The trainee aircraft which hard-landed at Solapur airport The training aircraft which hard-landed in Solapur airport Pune: A trainee pilot of Redbird Flying Training Academy had a close shave on Thursday afternoon after the aircraft she was flying made a hard landing at Solapur airport, damaging its nose wheel and leaving the aircraft stranded on the runway.
Redbird Flying Training Academy, as per their website, has a total of 56 aircraft of which 52 are single engine and four are multi-engine. At present, they have 542 students on training in Baramati, Seoni, Lilabari, Belagavi, Gulbarga and Columbo in Sri Lanka. You Can Also Check: Gold Rate in Pune | Silver Rate in Pune | Bank Holidays in Pune | Public Holidays in Pune | Petrol Price in Pune | Diesel Price in Pune | CNG Price in Pune | LPG Price in Pune Stay updated with the latest Pune news.
Aviation experts had said earlier that just carrying out checks on FTOs was not enough and the frequency of the same needed to be increased and swift and strict action needed to be taken in case of non-compliance and irregularities, which would serve as a future deterrent. Join conversation Share your thoughts in the comments Be respectful · TOI community guidelines “There is also an urgent need to strengthen regulatory oversight of FTOs and N-SOPs (non-scheduled operations) to ensure strict compliance, particularly with respect to pilot training standards and aircraft airworthiness,” aviation analyst and expert Dhairyashil Vandekar had said. Download the TOI App.
In the first-ever ranking done last year by the DGCA of flying schools, no flight training organisations (FTOs) in India were placed in the top A+ or A category by the aviation watchdog.