NEW DELHI – Two Indian Air Force fighter jets crashed on Saturday, killing one pilot, after an apparent midair collision during military exercises south of the capital New Delhi.
The crash involved a Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30, carrying two pilots, and a French-built Mirage 2000, operated by a third pilot.
The wreckage of the Mirage 2000 was found in the Morena district of the central state of Madhya Pradesh, while the remains of the Sukhoi jet were found in the Bharatpur district of neighbouring state Rajasthan.
Both aircraft had taken off in the morning from the Gwalior airbase, about 50km east of where they crashed.
“The aircraft were on a routine operational flying training mission,” the country’s air force said in a statement, adding that one of the three pilots had fatal injuries.
An investigation was under way to determine the cause of the crash, it added.
Police officer Dharmender Gaur told AFP at the scene of the crash that another pilot had been found alive, but injured.
The fate of the third pilot remained unclear.
“We have located the wreckage of one of the planes,” the officer said. “The other plane has likely fallen further away from the site and we have sent teams to locate it.”
The local authorities have been instructed to assist with the air force’s rescue and relief work, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan tweeted.
“I pray that the pilots of the planes are safe,” he added.
The crash is the latest in a string of aviation accidents involving India’s military air fleet.
Five army soldiers were killed last October when their helicopter crashed in Arunachal Pradesh state, near the country’s militarised and disputed border with China.
It was the second military chopper crash in the state that month, coming weeks after a Cheetah helicopter went down near the town of Tawang, killing its pilot.
India’s defence chief, General Bipin Rawat, was among 13 people killed when his Russian-made Mi-17 helicopter crashed while transporting him to an air force base in December 2021.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is grappling with the urgent task of overhauling India’s outdated armed forces.
Its military establishment is fretting over a growing assertiveness by China along its vast Himalayan frontier that in 2019 sparked a lingering diplomatic freeze after a deadly high-altitude confrontation between troops of both countries.
India unveiled its first locally built aircraft carrier in 2022 as part of government efforts to build an indigenous defence industry and reduce reliance on Russia, historically its most important arms supplier.
An effort to reform military recruitment to trim India’s bloated defence payroll stalled in 2022 after a backlash from aspiring soldiers, who burned train carriages and clashed with police in fierce protests. AFP, XINHUA
