An Indian Air Force (IAF) Jaguar aircraft crashed in Gujarat's Mundra district of Kutch on Tuesday, June 5, and the pilot has been reported dead. The aircraft took off from the Jamnagar airbase and was carrying out a routine training mission when the incident took place.
The pilot of the Jaguar jet Air Commodore Sanjay Chauhan lost his life in the crash.
"Today morning a Jaguar aircraft on a routine training mission from Jamnagar crashed around 10:30 hours. The pilot Air Cmde Sanjay Chauhan sustained fatal injuries during the crash," Times Now quoted said Lt Col Manish Ojha as saying.
A Court of Inquiry has been ordered to investigate the cause of the accident.
The wreckage of the crash was seen spread all over the field and a few cows grazing in the area were also killed.
Chauhan, a station commander, was one of the senior-most officers of the IAF. His rank is known to be equivalent to that of a Brigadier in the army.
The Indian Air Force has witnessed quite a few mishaps in the last few months. An IAF chopper crash-landed in Kashmir's Natha Top on May 23. All the passengers and crew were safe.
Before that, an Mi-17 chopper crashed in Uttarakhand's Kedarnath in April and six people were injured in the mishap.
Meanwhile, two IAF pilots were killed in a crash in Assam's Majuli island in February, minutes after taking off in a microlight aircraft for a routine sortie. The aircraft had taken off from the Jorhat air base.
The Jaguar, which is license manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in Bengaluru, is a deep penetration strike twin-engine aircraft. It is known for its power and precision and can also fly at a low-level and was first acquired in the 1980s.
