Goa: A single seat Sea Harrier aircraft crashed in Goa at the Dabolim Airport at 1130 hours IST. The pilot of the craft Lieutenant Commander Pannu died in the accident.
"It was a routine training mission that unfortunately turned fatal for the pilot," said Navy Incharge of Goa, Admiral Shekhar Sinha.
He added that though Lieutenant Pannu was a trainee pilot, he had almost seven years of flying experince.
The aircraft, which was preparing for take off, was accelerating on the airstrip but its controls failed at the last moment and the plane could not take-off as planned.
Because of the high speed, the pilot could not stop the plane in time.
The plane broke through the airport boundary wall, caught fire and crashed between the road and a railway line at Dabolim railway station, killing the pilot.
Navy police and the airport authorities reached the spot soon after but were unable to save the pilot.
Admiral Shekhar Sinha said that an enquiry board has been set up to ascertain the cause of the accident.
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