Aircraft door falls off mid-air; plane belonged to Telangana aviation school

Hyderabad: A door of an aircraft to the Telangana state Aviation Academy broke off mid-flight and fell on a house in Yadav Basti in Lalaguda in Secunderabad just past noon on Monday. No one was injured, and the aircraft, Diamond DA 42 of Austrian make, with its two pilots landed safely at the academy premises, police said.

A witness said the aircraft lost height immediately after the door fell off, but recovered and flew on. The door, about 3 feet by 4 feet and weighing 20 kg, suffered a dent on one side and the window glass had cracked but was largely intact.

Police said that they had found out after inquiry that it was the door of an aircraft that belonged to the Telangana State Aviation Academy.

Mr Ganesh Yadav, on whose house the door fell, said he heard a huge noise and thought it was a cylinder explosion.

“If the door had fallen two feet away, there could have been loss of life as it was time to fill drinking water in the area,” Mr Yadav said.

Mr Yadav, a realtor, said he was at home at about 12.15 pm when the incident occurred, making arrangements for a puja to be performed at their home on Thursday; it had been postponed from Monday.

“If the puja were to have been performed today, the terrace where the door fell would have been packed with my relatives and the damage beyond imagination. It is God’s grace that the puja was postponed and our lives are saved,” he said.