22-year-old trainee pilot killed in aircraft crash shortly after take-off in Gujarat

Police officials said that the crash took place shortly after take-off in the afternoon.

PI Omdevsinh Jadeja of Amreli taluka police station said, “The control room received a message of the crash at about 12.50 pm. The reason for the crash is yet to be ascertained.”

The aircraft crash took place at a very short distance from Amreli airport, in a residential area known as Bakshinagar, in the larger Shashtrinagar locality of Amreli town.

The Amreli fire department received the call at the same time as the police and rushed to douse the aircraft, which was on fire. District Fire Officer Harikrushna C Gadhvi said, “We doused the burning aircraft and then attempted to rescue the pilot who was stuck inside the cockpit due to damage caused by the crash. He was retrieved and sent to the local hospital.”

Officials confirmed that Mahajan was then declared dead at the hospital. An Accidental Death (AD) report will be filed at the Amreli taluka police station and further investigation is underway.

This is the second crash of a civilian trainee aircraft and the fourth overall aircraft crash in Gujarat since the beginning of 2025, with the other two being crashes of military aircraft.

On April 2, a two-seater Jaguar fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed in an open field in Suvarda village of the Jamnagar district of Gujarat. While one pilot was killed, the other sustained injuries in the crash at 10 pm.

On March 31, a 19-year-old trainee pilot sustained injuries after the Cessna-152 aircraft of Blue Ray Aviation Pvt Ltd that she was flying crashed in the fields of Ucharpi village in Mehsana district.

On January 6, three Indian Coast Guard staff were killed when their Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) crashed in the Porbandar district of Gujarat.