HYDERABAD: Director General of Civil Aviation’s investigation into 16 accidents and serious incidents involving Cessna aircraft revealed trainee pilot or cadet error during landing, or lack of maintenance by operators were to blame for the crashes.
In one of the cases, the DGCA probe found fault with the frequent failures of starter on Cessna 172R. Of these 16 cases, only one aircraft lacked airworthiness on the day of the accident.
Navigation instructor, Group Captain Ramana, told TOI: “When there are hundreds of flying hours, accidents are bound to happen. There is a lot of care taken, and a lot of procedure followed. Many things can go wrong. A crash happens due to failures linked to human elements too. Bad weather also contributes. Cessna is a very popular and proven aircraft. In this specific case, we can’t guess what may have happened. The DGCA will conduct a probe and come out with the cause of the crash.”
