A flying instructor and a trainee pilot were killed after a twin-engine training aircraft crashed near Kanpur Civil Airport on Thursday afternoon.The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) rushed a three-member team to the site while the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) prepares to investigate the mishap.“According to the preliminary information, a Tecnam P2006T twin-engine aircraft, bearing registration VT-NBV and operated by Garg Aviation Ltd, Kanpur, met with an accident on the afternoon of August 27 2026, approximately 5 NM from Kanpur Civil Airport, near Ganga Barrage,” said officials of the Ministry of Civil Aviation.The ministry added that the aircraft was on a training flight in the local flying area of the Kanpur airport and had two persons on board.The police identified the instructor as Sachin Bhatia, a Gujarat resident who had around 3,000 hours of flying experience. The trainee pilot was identified as Abhishek Pujari of Karnataka. Both sustained fatal injuries in the crash.The aircraft had come under the scrutiny of the DGCA two months ago following a serious safety incident at Chakeri Airport in Kanpur.On June 26, a trainee pilot was grievously injured while deboarding VT-NBV while the propeller was still running. Following the incident, the DGCA on June 28 directed that VT-NBV aircraft should not be utilised until the probe was completed. The aircraft subsequently returned to flying operations before Thursday’s crash.The timeline of its return to service, the checks carried out before it was allowed to fly again and the regulatory clearance involved are likely to come under examination as investigators reconstruct the aircraft’s operational and maintenance history.There is, however, no indication at this stage that the June incident was connected to Thursday’s crash, with the AAIB investigation expected to establish the sequence of events and probable cause.