Two Indian Air Force fighter jets crashed, one pilot killed

Asia-Pacific, News January 29, 2023 , by IRIA No Comments

Two Indian air force jets crashed after an apparent midair collision while on exercises in the central state of Madhya Pradesh on January 28, 2023. One pilot was killed and two sustained injuries in the crash, officials said.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) said that the two aircraft involved in the crash were on a routine operational training mission. The IAF said that it has ordered an inquiry to determine the cause of the accident.

The crash reportedly involved a Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30, carrying two pilots, and a French-built Mirage 2000, operated by a third. Both aircraft had taken off on Saturday morning from the Gwalior air base.

The first plane hit the ground in the forests of Morena in central Madhya Pradesh state, around 300 kilometers south of New Delhi. Two pilots were found near the crash site, who were later evacuated in an IAF chopper for treatment, Morena district police superintendent Ashutosh Bagri told reporters.

The second jet wreckage was found in Bharatpur in the neighboring state of Rajasthan.

Two Indian Air Force fighter jets — Sukhoi Su-30 and Mirage 2000 — crashed in an apparent midair collision, killing one pilot and injuring two. Both aircraft took off from the Gwalior air base. pic.twitter.com/2mJQzn8w7q
— IRIA (@IRIA_Research) January 28, 2023

According to the sources of India Air Force, the two fighter jets took off in the morning from the Gwalior airbase, about 50 kilometers in the east where they came down. An Indian Air Force officer Dharmender Gaur said, “We have located the wreckage of one of the planes and found an injured pilot in the Pahadgarh forests.”

Dharmender Gaur said shortly after the incident was reported that “The other plane has likely fallen further away from the site and we have sent teams to locate it.”

A local administrator Ankit Asthana told the reporters that two of the three crew members from the Su-30 jet ejected in time. They were rescued and rushed to the hospital. The pilot of the single-seater Mirage-2000 fighter jet could not eject in time and he was killed during the collision.

*^{The aircraft crash site of Indian Air Force’s Sukhoi-30 and Mirage-2000 fighter jets. (Image Credit: TOI/HT)}*

India has a notorious history of fatal military crashes owing to its aging fleet and lack of maintenance. India’s former Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat was killed along with 13 other people in December 2021 when the Russian-made M-17 helicopter crashed while transporting him to an air force base. Five army soldiers were also killed in October 2022 when their helicopter crashed in Arunachal Pradesh state, near India’s militarized and disputed border with China.

About 13 people were killed in Arunachal Pradesh in 2019 when an AN-32 craft crashed, while in one of the worst air accidents in 2016, a Russian-made medium-lift military transporter plane crashed while flying to Andaman Nicobar Island from Chennai. The plane crashed into the Bay of Bengal, killing all 29 persons on board.