Pilot, instructor were practicing how to fly on one engine before crash

Vero Beach: The flight instructor and student injured in last Friday’s airplane crash were practicing how to fly on one engine in case of an engine failure, according to a preliminary report from National Transportation and Safety Board released Thursday.
About 1:20 p.m. March 5, instructor James Ross, 28 and student pilot Avinash Kumar, 22, left Paris Air Inc. at Vero Beach Municipal Airport to practice touch-and-go maneuvers, where the plane lands and then pulls up, according to FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen.
The plane, a 1979 twin engine Piper Seneca PA – 34-200 T, had been filled with 51 gallons of fuel before the flight, the report states.
An hour later, the two were practicing how to fly if the left engine fails while approaching the airport, when it crashed south of 12th Street near 34th Avenue in the Sun Villas subdivision, the report states. The plane struck two large trees within less than 50 yards of several homes.
Ross was released Monday from Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute after receiving treatment for fractures to his wrist and elbow. Kumar, from India, who started training in February, suffered a broken leg and has been released from Holmes Regional Medical Center said, Lynn Lilliquist, Paris Air spokeswoman.
Currently, Paris Air Inc. trains about 200 pilots a year and last Friday’s crash was the first since it started flight training in 1988, Lilliquist said.
Despite the injuries, both Ross and Kumar are physically doing well, Lilliquist said, adding she expects the instructor will resume training pilots within two months.
Lilliquist credits both men for how well they handled the aircraft in its final moment in the air.
12/03/10 Keona Gardner, Elliott Jones/TC Palm, USA