A 50-year-old Cessna 172 trainer aircraft made a crash landing due to inadequate fuel and broke into three pieces near the Belagavi airport in Karnataka on Sunday afternoon, and the two pilots, who were on board the plane, are safe, according to sources.The two-seater aircraft — VT-EUC — which was flying from Kalaburagi to Belagavi, crash-landed in an open field in Mangaluru village in Babaleshwar Taluk of Vijayapura district. The site is around 50 to 70 km from the Belagavi airport.Both the occupants ejected before it crashed, the sources said, adding that the aircraft broke into three pieces.In a statement on Sunday evening, the Civil Aviation Ministry said the forced landing happened “due to suspected fuel starvation experienced by the aircraft” and that the plane was manufactured in 1975.The aircraft’s certificate of registration with Redbird was issued on May 23, 2023, and the certificate of airworthiness was issued on September 20, 2023.According to the ministry, the Airworthiness Review Certificate (ARC) was issued on August 1, 2025, and is valid till August 3, 2026.The ARC is issued after inspection of the particular aircraft to ensure that it is fit to fly.The people who were injured in the accident are Captain Kunal Malhotra, an Assistant Flight Instructor at Redbird, and trainee pilot Goutham Sankar PR, the sources said.The pilot in command had 734 hours of flying experience.The Redbird Flight Training Academy has 48 planes in its fleet and its Flying Training Organisation (FTO) approval is valid till July 22, 2030.The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) approved the academy as an FTO on July 23, 2020, as per the statement.The ministry said, “Further investigation will be carried out by the DGCA/AAIB (Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau).In a statement, a RedBird Flight Training Academy spokesperson said around 2.30 pm, the aircraft, which was on a cross-country flight, carried out a precautionary landing in an open field near Vijayapura.“We are relieved to confirm that both the instructor and the trainee pilot on board are safe. They were immediately rushed to a nearby hospital and were treated for minor injuries,” the spokesperson said.