Pilot dies in mid-air crash

2008-08-27 14:16

Sydney - A trainee pilot from India was killed on his first solo flight on Wednesday after a mid-air collision with another plane over suburban Melbourne, reports said.

The pilot lost control of his Cessna 150 after clipping another aircraft and narrowly missed homes and a school to crash into a garage in the city's southeast.

"The male pilot was on his own and we believe under some form of instruction," police Inspector Tom Shawyer told reporters.

"The other plane involved was occupied by two males who we believe were also under some form of instruction."

National news agency AAP said the pilot was from India and that a group of Indian trainee pilots who visited the scene after the accident said the dead man had left Moorabbin Airport this afternoon.

"He was on his first solo flight... and was forced to do a spiral dive," trainee pilot Ben Zachariah told AAP.

"He would have been doing circuits, which means you are not more than 305m high and couldn't have had time to do it safely."

The second plane involved in the incident sustained only minor damage and landed safely at nearby Moorabbin Airport, police said.

- AFP