BS READS: Behind crashes at top flying schools - old planes or bad pilots?

There are doubts about the state of affairs at central govt-led Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udan Academy, with red flags over its ageing aircraft, 40% of which had completed their technical life by 2019

Twenty-one-year-old Konark Saran was scheduled to add a few more hours to his 125 hours of flying experience before his life was snuffed out on September 21. The trainee pilot from Palwal in Haryana, on board a four-seater TB-20 Trindad aircraft, crashed into fields in Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh district while flying solo. He was one of the many training to be a commercial pilot at Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udan Academy (IGRUA) at Fursatganj in Amethi.

While a probe has been instituted, investigations in the past have invariably pointed to pilot error as being the principal reason for the accidents. But