Carcoar plane crash: Shipra Sharma and Saket Kapoor remembered
Devastated friends of a young woman and her flying instructor who were killed in a horror light plane crash in central NSW say their deaths have rocked Australia’s aviation community.
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Friends and family members have paid tribute to a much-loved student pilot and her flying instructor who were tragically killed in a horror light plane crash in the NSW Central West on Wednesday.
Soar Aviation chief flying instructor Saket Kapoor and his student Shipra Sharma died after they took off from Orange Regional Airport shortly before 7.30am on Wednesday.
The aircraft they were travelling in crashed on a property at Carcoar, just 48 kilometres from Orange.
The pair died instantly, leaving police with the task of trying to find out what caused the tragic crash.
“There was no fire after the crash but it will take a lot of work to piece together what happened,” Detective Chief Inspector Luke Rankin said on Thursday.
Mr Kapoor and Ms Sharma were from Sydney and had travelled to Orange from Bankstown Airport.
According to police they had been practising a ‘touch and go’ landing.
Shaymaa Abdullah was taught by Mr Kapoor and told the Dubbo News he was a “very experienced pilot”.
“The aviation community is small and a lot of students both past and present are saddened by this news,” she said.
“He was a great instructor … he will be greatly missed by those who knew him.
“It has impacted a lot of us who knew him. Some of his work colleagues have travelled to the crash site.”
Sakib Chowdhury said Mr Kapoor was the “coolest senior pilot” he ever had.
“Highly competent, accomplished and humble,” Mr Chowdhury wrote on Facebook.
“We had almost 30 hours flying time together, young men from India.”
“He will always be in our memories and will always be remembered as we take to the skies. I still can’t accept he is no more. Soar on SK”.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is also investigating the cause of the crash.
Inspectors are expected to spend several days at the crash site where they will examine wreckage, analyse recorded data and speak to any witnesses.
Police will prepare a report for the coroner.