Flying School Accident Records in India
Investigated accidents and incidents involving the training aircraft of DGCA-approved flying schools — compiled per academy from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau's own reports, and, where AAIB has not published, from named mainstream reporting. Every entry links to its source.
How to read this page — and how not to
- A blank is not a clean record. We found no published investigation involving this academy’s aircraft. That is not the same as a clean record: AAIB publishes selectively and with a lag, minor occurrences may never appear, and we have not searched exhaustively. Treat a blank here as “nothing found”, not as “nothing happened”.
- A count is not a rate. An academy flying twelve thousand hours a year is far more exposed than one flying nine hundred, and India publishes no per-academy hours-flown figure. That is why this page is a timeline rather than a ranking, and why you will not find a "most dangerous flying school" list here.
- A preliminary report is not a verdict. It records what investigators established early. Conclusions change.
- Nobody who died is named. Their names are in the news reports and add nothing a prospective student needs. Their families did not sign up to be a data point on a comparison site.
Every recorded occurrence, most recent first
20 occurrences across 12 academies. Not ranked — see above.-
August 2026 Fatal Under investigationGarg Aviation — Twin-engine trainerThe TribuneKanpur, Uttar PradeshTrainee pilot and instructorDGCA visited the site and AAIB opened a detailed investigation.
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June 2026 Serious injury Under investigationGarg Aviation — aircraft type not statedNews reportKanpur, Uttar PradeshA trainee pilot was struck by a propeller during night flying training. DGCA opened an inquiry and the instructor was removed from flight duties pending it.
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8 February 2026 Serious injury AAIB preliminary report publishedRedbird Flight Training Academy — Cessna 172 VT-EUCAAIB preliminary report, VT-EUCNear Mangalur village, Vijayapura district, KarnatakaAssistant flight instructor and trainee pilot, cross-country training flightBoth occupants were reported in serious but stable condition, with neither injury described as life-threatening.
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10 December 2025 Minor injury AAIB preliminary report publishedChimes Aviation Academy — Cessna 172S VT-CAZAAIB preliminary report, VT-CAZDhana Airstrip, Sagar district, Madhya PradeshTrainee pilot, solo cross-country training flight
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8 December 2025 AAIB preliminary report publishedRedbird Flight Training Academy — Tecnam P-Mentor VT-RFOAAIB preliminary report, VT-RFOPotlai, near Suktara airfield, Seoni district, Madhya PradeshInstructor and trainee pilot, circuit and landing trainingBoth occupants were taken to hospital after the forced landing. The aircraft struck a 33kV power line on the way down, cutting power to 80-90 nearby villages.
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31 March 2025 AAIB preliminary report publishedAAIB preliminary report, VT-PBA
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2025 AAIB preliminary report publishedAAIB preliminary report, VT-VDF
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20 August 2024 Fatal AAIB preliminary report publishedAlchemist Aviation — Cessna 152 VT-TAJAAIB preliminary report, VT-TAJChandil Dam, near Jamshedpur, JharkhandInstructor and student pilot, local training sortieThe aircraft went missing mid-flight; wreckage was located five days later submerged in the Chandil Dam reservoir.
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11 August 2024 ReportedSha Shib Flying Academy — Cessna 152Business StandardGuna, Madhya PradeshTwo pilots, test/maintenance flightBoth occupants were hospitalised and reported out of danger; possible engine failure was reported as the cause. No AAIB report for this occurrence has been located.
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22 October 2023 Minor injury AAIB preliminary report publishedRedbird Flight Training Academy — Tecnam P2008 JC VT-RBTAAIB preliminary report, VT-RBT (classified as a serious incident)Near Baramati Airport, MaharashtraInstructor and student pilot, training flightAAIB found this aircraft's Garmin SD card had also been removed and its data modified before AAIB retrieved it — the same pattern as VT-RBC three days earlier, at the same airfield.
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19 October 2023 Minor injury AAIB preliminary report publishedRedbird Flight Training Academy — Tecnam P2008 JC VT-RBCAAIB preliminary report, VT-RBCNear Baramati Airport, MaharashtraChief Flying Instructor, solo check flight after a reported brake/noise snagAAIB's report also states that a Garmin SD card and CCTV hard disks were removed from the aircraft and premises before its investigators arrived, without authorisation, and that the SD card's files had been modified before being handed over. AAIB recommended DGCA "take action ... against M/s Redbird Flight Training Academy Pvt Ltd for obstructing the proceedings of the Investigation Team." DGCA temporarily suspended the academy's flying operations at all its bases after this and the VT-RBT occurrence three days later.
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17 June 2023 No injuries AAIB final report publishedFSTC Flying School — Cessna 172S VT-FSFAAIB final report, VT-FSFBhiwani Aerodrome, HaryanaTraining flightThe aircraft exited the runway and struck a paver machine during a training flight. AAIB's final report also recorded that the aerodrome's runway CCTV was non-functional at the time and that this had not been reported to the DGCA as required.
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18 March 2023 Fatal ReportedIndira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi — Diamond DA40The HitavadaNear Bhukkutola village, Lanji, Balaghat district, Madhya PradeshTrainee pilot and instructor, cross-country flight from GondiaReported at the time as likely caused by bad weather in a hilly, forested area; the aircraft caught fire after impact. No AAIB report for this occurrence has been located.
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13 June 2022 No injuries ReportedIndira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi — Diamond DA40India TV NewsFarmland near Kairana village, Amethi, Uttar PradeshTrainee pilot, solo training sortieThe trainee pilot made a forced landing on farmland after a reported technical issue; the aircraft was damaged, nobody was hurt. No AAIB report for this occurrence has been located.
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12 May 2022 No injuries AAIB final report publishedFSTC Flying School — Tecnam P2006T VT-VDBAAIB final report, VT-VDBChaudhary Bansi Lal Airport, Bhiwani, HaryanaTraining flightAAIB attributed the accident to fuel vapour lock in one engine in extreme heat (around 44–46°C), combined with limited crew experience on type, and recommended the type not be parked on open tarmac in summer.
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26 February 2022 Fatal AAIB final report publishedFlytech Aviation Academy — Cessna 152 VT-FAOAAIB final report, VT-FAONear Thungathurthy village, Nalgonda district, TelanganaStudent pilot, solo cross-country training flightAAIB could not establish a definitive cause but found contributory factors including maintenance schedules not complying with the manufacturer's guidance for a "severe corrosion zone," and unserviceable cockpit instruments.
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21 September 2020 Fatal ReportedIndira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi — SOCATA TB20The PrintSarai Mir police station area, Azamgarh district, Uttar PradeshTrainee pilot, solo cross-country flightReported at the time as having likely encountered a cumulonimbus cloud. No AAIB report for this occurrence has been located.
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21 October 2019 No injuries ReportedIndira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi — Zlin (two-seater aerobatic trainer)ETV BharatIGRUA campus, Fursatganj, Amethi, Uttar PradeshTrainee pilot, second solo flightThe aircraft veered off the runway on landing and caught fire in an adjacent field; the trainee got clear unhurt and the aircraft was destroyed by the fire. No AAIB report for this occurrence has been located.
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26 April 2017 Fatal ReportedNational Flying Training Institute — Diamond DA42 (twin-engine)The TribuneWainganga River, near Gondia, MaharashtraTrainee pilot on final sortie before completing 200 hours, with instructorReported at the time as involving the Gondia-based National Flying Training Institute, before CAE's current management of the site. No AAIB report for this occurrence has been located.
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19 November 2014 Serious injury ReportedThe Madhya Pradesh Flying Club — Cessna 152Deccan ChronicleNear the boundary wall of Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport, Indore, Madhya PradeshTwo pilots, training sortieBoth pilots were hospitalised, one described as in serious condition. No AAIB report for this occurrence has been located.
What this page does not tell you
It does not tell you which academy is safest. It cannot: there is no published denominator in India — no per-FTO hours flown, no serviceable fleet count, no movements — so there is no honest way to turn 20 occurrences into a rate. Anyone presenting Indian flying school accidents as a ranked safety table is asserting something their data does not support.
It also does not tell you that the 29 academies without an entry here have had none. It tells you we found no published investigation for them, which is a statement about what is public, not about what happened.
What it is good for: reading one academy's record in full, in the investigator's own words, before you hand over fifteen to sixty-eight lakh rupees — and knowing which questions are worth asking on the visit.
Academies with a recorded occurrence
Alphabetical. The order carries no meaning — read each record on its own terms.- Alchemist Aviation 1 occurrence
- BlueRay Aviation 1 occurrence
- Chimes Aviation Academy 1 occurrence
- Flytech Aviation Academy 1 occurrence
- FSTC Flying School 2 occurrences
- Garg Aviation 2 occurrences
- Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi 4 occurrences
- National Flying Training Institute 1 occurrence
- Redbird Flight Training Academy 4 occurrences
- Sha Shib Flying Academy 1 occurrence
- The Madhya Pradesh Flying Club 1 occurrence
- Vision Flying Training Institute 1 occurrence
Questions students ask about flying school safety
How many accidents have Indian flying schools had?
This page records 20 investigated occurrences involving the training aircraft of 12 of India's 41 DGCA-approved flying training organisations, including 10 deaths. That is not the complete national figure and should not be quoted as one: AAIB publishes selectively and with a lag, minor occurrences may never be published at all, and we have not searched exhaustively. It is a floor, not a total.
Does a flying school with no accidents listed have a clean safety record?
We found no published investigation involving this academy’s aircraft. That is not the same as a clean record: AAIB publishes selectively and with a lag, minor occurrences may never appear, and we have not searched exhaustively. Treat a blank here as “nothing found”, not as “nothing happened”.
Which flying school in India has the most accidents?
We deliberately do not rank academies that way, because the number that would make such a ranking meaningful does not exist publicly. A raw count is not a safety rate: an academy flying twelve thousand hours a year with two occurrences is not worse than one flying nine hundred hours with one, and the DGCA does not publish hours flown, fleet size or movements per FTO. Without that denominator, ordering academies by count would assert a comparison the data cannot support. Read each occurrence on its own terms, and read the investigator's own findings where a report exists.
What is the AAIB and what does a preliminary report mean?
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is India's statutory air-accident investigator, under the Ministry of Civil Aviation. The sole objective of an AAIB investigation is the prevention of accidents and incidents, not to apportion blame or liability. Preliminary findings are not final and are liable to change. A preliminary report sets out the facts established early in an investigation; it is not a finding of fault and its conclusions can change in the final report. Treating a preliminary report as proof that an academy is unsafe misuses it.
What should I ask a flying school about safety before I join?
Ask how many aircraft are serviceable today, not how many are on the fleet list — the gap between those two numbers is where most training delays and some safety problems live. Ask whether the academy has had an occurrence investigated by the AAIB and what changed afterwards; a school that answers that openly is telling you more than one that has never had an incident. Ask how snags are recorded and who can ground an aircraft. And read what current students say, which is the one source the academy does not control.
Your name is never revealed. Not once, not to anyone.
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The academy can never see who you areYour review appears under a generated handle like Crosswind-5CD — never your name, never your email, never your photo. There is no way for an academy to work out which student wrote which review.
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Nothing personal is ever publishedPhone numbers, email addresses and payment handles are stripped out automatically before a review is stored — including from your own text, so you cannot identify yourself by accident.
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Photos are cleaned before they are uploadedAttach a fee receipt or a logbook page and the location, time and camera data are removed in your browser before the file ever leaves your phone.
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You can withdraw at any timeDelete your review and it is gone permanently — the text, the photo and the recording with it. You do not have to ask anyone.