Indian Air Force MIG-21 combat jet crashes in Himachal's Kangra, condition of pilot unknown
A MiG-21 Indian Air Force fighter plane crashed in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district on Wednesday afternoon.
The combat jet was coming from Punjab's Pathankot when it crashed in Patta Jattiyan in Jawali subdivision of Kangra district.
Initial reports say that the pilot is missing. Rescue team on the way. This is third such crash involving a combat jet of the Indian Air Force.
Last month, two such crashes were reported in Gujarat and Maharashtra.
In Gujarat, a Jaguar fighter jet crashed in Kutch district soon after it took off from the Jamnagar air base on June 5, killing a senior officer who was piloting the aircraft.
Air Commodore Sanjai Chauhan, the Air Officer Commanding Air Force Station Jamnagar, who was flying the deep penetration Jaguar fighter jet died when the plane crashed in a field in Bareja village.
"The Jaguar aircraft on a routine training mission from Jamnagar crashed around 10.30 am," Defence spokesperson Lt Col Manish Ojha had said. "The pilot, Air Commodore Sanjai Chauhan, sustained fatal injuries in the crash," he said. A Court of Inquiry was ordered (by the air headquarters) to investigate the cause of the accident, he said. "The plane, which was on a routine sortie, crashed near Bareja village," he said.
The plane's debris was strewn far and wide on the outskirts of the village and carcasses of the killed animals were seen lying in the field.
In second incident, a Sukhoi- 30 jet on the test flight crashed in Maharashtra's Nashik district on June 27. In that incident, however, both the pilots were able to eject safely before the plane, which was on a routine sortie, hit ground near a grape farm.
The under-production Sukhoi Su-30MKI twinjet multirole air superiority fighter of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) crashed around 25 km from Nashik, shortly after taking off from the HAL airstrip near the city, police said.
(with agency inputs)
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