Mid-Air Crash In Canada Kills Student Pilot From Kerala

As per media reports, the dead pilots have been identified as a twenty-one-year-old Sreehari Sukesh, a resident of Kerala and his classmate Savanna May Royes, a twenty-year-old Canadian citizen. Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) reportedly pronounced both pilots dead.

Taking cognisance of the incident, the Consulate General said, "With profound sorrow, we mourn the tragic passing of 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."

Local media reports suggested that Sreehari had already obtained his private pilot's licence and was pursuing his commercial pilot certification.

Quoting Adam Penner, president of Harv's Air pilot training school, local media reports suggested that the accident took place when the two now-deceased student pilots were practising takeoffs and landings in small Cessna single-engine planes.

Sharing further details of the tragic incident, Penner reportedly said both pilots appeared to have tried to land at the same time and collided a few hundred yards away from the small runway.

Their planes were equipped with radios, but it appears that neither pilot saw the other coming, according to a report by the New York Post. 

Harv's Air pilot training school, which was started by Penner's parents in the early 1970s, trains about 400 student pilots a year and has students from around the world-- training for professional and recreational purposes.