Trainee pilot Shalinda Vimukthi Amarakoon
Young trainee Shalinda Vimukthi Amarakoon needed 10 more hours of flying to qualify as a pilot officer of the Sri Lanka Air Force when he crashed off Kantale.
He had already finished 84 flight sessions and there were only four more to be completed. After 50 hours of flying the trainees are allowed to fly alone, under supervision.
Last Tuesday, 15 minutes after he took off from the China-bay base in Trincomalee in the Chinese built trainer aircraft bought in 2018, the 23-year-old lost contact.
“He lost contact with the airbase and shortly afterwards he crash-landed close to a stream in Sooriyapura, Kantale,’’ a senior Air Force officer said.