Indian Air Force plane crashes in Gujarat, pilot killed

In a tragic incident, Air Commodore Sanjai Chauhan passed away after his plane, a Jaguar, crashed around 10:30 am, in the Mundra taluk of the Kutch region in northwestern Gujarat.

The plane took off from the Jamnagar Air Force base and a court of inquiry has already been ordered.

Air Commodore Chauhan was on a routine training mission.


"The plane, which was on a routine sortie, crashed near Bareja village," said an official in Gujarat. The plane's debris was strewn far and wide on the outskirts of the village, said locals.

Slew of crashes
The Jaguar crash succeeds the crash landing of an IAF Cheetah helicopter at Natha Top in Jammu and Kashmir, barely a fortnight ago on May 23. The helicopter, too, was on a routine sortie and a court of inquiry was ordered.

On March 20 this year, an Advanced Hawk Jet (AJT) trainer, crashed on the Subarnarekha River bed along Jharkhand and Odisha's border.

Jaguar
Indian Air Force's Jaguars are almost four decades old and were built under licensing from SEPECAT, an Anglo-French consortium. Over the years, IAF has been upgrading them with modern avionics, radar systems, and modern engines, hoping to extract another decade's worth from them.

(With inputs from PTI)