Finland's Safety Investigation Authority, Otkes, has begun looking into a light airplane crash that claimed the life of a 50-year-old trainee pilot on Wednesday evening. No one else was on board the aircraft and no one was reported injured on the ground. Police are also investigating the incident.
The accident took place at the local Pirkanmaa-Tampere airfield around 9 pm on Wednesday. Initial reports suggest that the aircraft crash-landed shortly after takeoff. Otkes lead investigator Ismo Aaltonen said that the organisation had obtained a video recording of the incident.
"At this stage we know that immediately after takeoff the plane banked left and almost completed an entire loop while climbing to a few dozen metres before crashing nose-down alongside the runway," Aaltonen told Yle on Thursday.
Trainee was flying solo
Aaltonen said that the trainee was alone on the flight.
"Usually there is an instructor present, but we haven't yet unravelled the details," he added.
The is no legal obligation for Otkes to investigate accidents involving ultra-light airplanes. However Aaltonen said the organisation is probing the crash because a trainee was involved. The investigation will seek to examine oversight in training situations. Learners typically fly with an instructor in the early phases of their training.
"This is the first accident involving a trainee since 2010," Aaltonen noted.
Detective inspector Pasi Nieminen of the Central Finland police department said that the cause of the fatal crash is not yet known. However police do not believe that it put bystanders in danger.
Aaltonen described the craft as an ultra-light two-seater Eurostar plane. He said that nothing appeared to obstruct the plane as it ascended, and went on to declare that suggestions that the plane had encountered a hot air balloon were mere "hearsay". He added that initial information indicates that the weather was fair at the time of the accident.
Flights to Tampere diverted, cancelled
Local emergency services in Pirkanmaa received a call about a major aviation accident on Wednesday evening shortly before 9 pm. Some 19 rescue units responded to the call and completed their work around 11 pm.
Finnish news agency STT reported Wednesday evening that two eyewitnesses said that the plane dropped sharply nose-down. Meanwhile tabloid daily Ilta-Sanomat said that the accident occurred during takeoff.
Airport manager Mari Nurminen said on Wednesday that the entire airfield remained closed until midnight.
A Ryanair flight from Budapest was due to land at the airport at 9:40 pm but was re-directed to Turku. Nurminen said that national flag carrier Finnair had also cancelled a flight from Helsinki to Tampere, while an Air Baltic flight from Riga was delayed to later the same night.
On Sunday another light airplane crashed in Vuolijoki in Kajaani, eastern Finland, killing the 68-year-old pilot. According to data from the Transport and Communications Agency Traficom, during the last decade there were 38 accidents involving ultra-light airplanes, resulting in 11 fatalities.