Kanpur: The dream of becoming a pilot was just days away from becoming a reality for 28-year-old trainee pilot Abhishek Pujari when a crash shattered his family’s hopes. Having completed 190 hours of flight training, Abhishek had only 10 hours left to secure his pilot’s licence. His family was eagerly awaiting his return home as a certified pilot on Sept 2, but instead, they travelled to Kanpur to collect his body after he died in the crash.Abhishek’s bereaved family arrived in Kanpur from Panvel, Maharashtra, on Friday, visibly distressed. His father, Prabhakar Raju Pujari, said the tragedy had destroyed both their aspirations and his son’s future. The family had spoken to Abhishek just a day before the crash, when he told them he would return on Sept 2.His mother, Shashikala, was engulfed in grief and said she could not fathom the reality of her son’s absence. On Friday around noon, Prabhakar, accompanied by his wife Shashikala, younger son Abhinav, an electrical engineer, and Abhishek’s friend Priyanka, arrived in Kanpur to receive the body. They departed for Maharashtra with his remains on Saturday.Meanwhile, teams from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) have started their investigation. To ascertain the cause of the crash, they secured the flight recorder and other equipment from the aircraft that operate similarly to a black box.At the postmortem facility in Swaroop Nagar, the sight of Abhishek’s grieving family left those present deeply moved. His family was inconsolable upon seeing his body. The postmortem of the other pilot who died in the crash, 29-year-old Sachin Bhatia, was also conducted on Friday. A total of 22 injuries were identified on his body, and he succumbed due to severe blood loss. The postmortem report stated that the bones in his skull were fractured, along with seven other bones, including those in his chest, arms and legs.Late Friday evening, Sachin’s family arrived in Kanpur from Vadodara, Gujarat, and his last rites were performed at Bhairav Ghat.Officials involved in the investigation said the exact cause of the crash would become clear only after the inquiry is completed. Early findings suggest that both men might have survived had the aircraft not struck the wall. The plane had gone out of control over Trans Ganga City, following which the pilot, using his presence of mind, chose an orchard near the Ganga for an emergency landing. However, the aircraft hit the cemented boundary wall of a farmhouse, was badly damaged and both occupants died. All these aspects are under investigation.The four-seater Tecnam P-2006T training aircraft, belonging to Kanpur Cantonment-based Garg Aviation Limited, crashed at 12:10 pm on Thursday. It struck a five-foot-high boundary wall near the Ganga Barrage and fell into a field, leaving the aircraft completely wrecked.
