Canada air collision: Indian-origin student pilot killed in tragic crash

An Indian origin student pilot was one of the two individuals killed in a disastrous midair crash between two training aircraft in Canada on Tuesday (July 10), according to the Indian Consulate General of India in Toronto on Wednesday. The accident took place on Tuesday morning, some 400 metres from a runway belonging to Harv's Air pilot school near Steinbach South Airport in the southern Manitoba of Canada.

The deceased pilots have been identified as 21-year-old Sreehari Sukesh, a resident of Kerala and his classmate Savanna May Royes, a 20-year-old Canadian citizen.

"With profound sorrow, we mourn the tragic passing of Mr. Sreehari Sukesh, a young Indian student pilot, who lost his life in a mid-air collision near Steinbach, Manitoba. We extend our deepest condolences to his family. The Consulate is in contact with the bereaved family, the pilot training school and local police to provide all necessary assistance," the Consulate General said in a post on X.

See the post below:

Sreehari already had his private pilot's licence and was in the process of getting his commercial pilot certification, local media reports said. Two student pilots were conducting takeoff and landing practice in small Cessna single-engine aircraft at the time of the crashes, said Adam Penner, Harv's Air pilot training school president.

Both pilots, says Penner, seemed to have attempted to land simultaneously and crashed a few hundred yards from the small airstrip. The aircraft had radios on board, but neither pilot seems to have noticed the other approaching, a New York Post report says.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers declared both pilots dead at the site and said there were no passengers. Harv's Air pilot training academy, founded by Penner's parents in the early 1970s, trains around 400 student pilots annually and has students from all over the globe-- training for professional and recreational use.