Mid-Air Collision Claims Indian Student Pilot’s Life

Photo: Twitter

India-West News Desk

OTTAWA – Student pilot, Sreehari Sukesh, 21, from Kerala, was among two people killed in a mid-air collision involving training aircraft in Canada on July 8. The incident occurred near a runway used by Harv’s Air pilot school near Steinbach South Airport in Canada’s southern Manitoba.

The second victim was identified as Sukesh’s classmate, Savanna May Royes, a 20-year-old Canadian citizen.

“With profound sorrow, we mourn the tragic passing of Mr. Sreehari Sukesh, a young Indian student pilot, who lost his life in a mid-air collision near Steinbach, Manitoba,” the Consulate General of India in Toronto stated on July 9 in a post on X. “We extend our deepest condolences to his family. The Consulate is in contact with the bereaved family, the pilot training school and local police to provide all necessary assistance.”

Both student pilots were practicing takeoffs and landings in small Cessna single-engine planes when the collision happened. Adam Penner, president of Harv’s Air pilot training school, indicated that the pilots appeared to have attempted to land simultaneously, colliding a few hundred yards from the small runway. Despite their planes being equipped with radios, neither pilot reportedly saw the other, as per a New York Post report.

Sukesh had already obtained his private pilot’s license and was pursuing commercial pilot certification, local media reported.