Mid-air crash: Swaraj offers condolences to Indian trainee pilot''s family

CHANDIGARH: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday expressed her condolences on the tragic death of Nisha Sejwal, a trainee pilot from India who was killed in a rare mid-air collision of two aircraft in the US.

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 19

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday expressed her condolences on the tragic death of Nisha Sejwal, a trainee pilot from India who was killed in a rare mid-air collision of two aircraft in the US.

Reacting to a story in The Tribune, Sushma Swaraj tweeted, “My heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family. @IndianEmbassyUS will provide them all help and assistance.”

My heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family. @IndianEmbassyUS will provide them all help and assistance. https://t.co/uhOlNlffiX
— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 19, 2018

On Tuesday, two aircraft, Piper PA-34 and Cessna 172, belonging to Dean International Flight School based at Miami Executive Airport, smashed into each other in the sky and plummeted to the ground, 14 km west from where they took off.

After a frantic search, police and fire rescue staff recovered the bodies of 19-year-old Indian woman Nisha Sejwal, Jorge Sanchez, 22, and Ralph Knight, 72.

Read: US authorities probe mid-air crash that killed Indian trainee pilot

Police later pulled the body of another 22-year-old trainee pilot Carlos Alfredo Zanetti Scarpati from the swampy grassland, according to Miami-Dade Detective and spokesman Alvaro Zabaleta.

The body of the fourth victim was retrieved on Wednesday, ending the mission to look for survivors, the Miami Herald reported.

but searchers continued to scour the razor-like sawgrass in hopes of finding clues to help explain what caused the accident, the daily said.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will take over the investigation about the causes of the crash and how it happened, said Zabaleta.

Police believe that Scarpati was flying with Sanchez and that Knight and Sejwal were in the other plane together.

Zabaleta said Sejwal, who hailed from New Delhi, was on a routine flight check to maintain her certification.

According to her social media profile, she was an alumnus of DAV Model School, Yusuf Sarai, and Amity International School, Saket.

Sejwal had enrolled in Dean International Flight School in September 2017. The flight school has a history of more than two dozen incidents and accidents in the decade between 2007 and 2017.

According to the FAA, there was no flight plan filed for either plane.

It was not clear if the pilots were conducting flying lessons or conducting some type of flight check. With PTI