Indian Air Force pilot ejects, IAF says technical snag

Indian Air Force's 'Jaguar' crashed today around 9:20 am in the morning. The pilot was on a routine training mission from the Jamnagar Air Force base when it developed a snag while landing.

The pilot managed to eject safely and a Court of Inquiry has been ordered.

"At around 9:20 am, the pilot of a Jaguar aircraft, on a routine mission from Jamnagar, safely ejected when the aircraft developed a snag during the landing phase. It was a minor accident. Pilot is safe," said an IAF official.


According to him, the plane has not crash landed, as it had only developed a technical snag. There was only minor damage to the fighter jet.

This is the second alarming incident in the last 72 hours where an Indian Air Force Jaguar has crashed. On June 5, Air Commodore Sanjai Chauhan passed away after his plane went down in the Mundra taluk of the Kutch region in northwestern Gujarat.

Air Commodore Chauhan was a recipient of the Vayu Sena Medal and the Air Officer Commanding of Jamnagar Air Force Station.

In an unfortunate coincidence, Air Commodore Chauhan also took off from the Jamnagar Air Force base and he too, was on a routine training mission.

Slew of crashes
Before these two successive Jaguar crashes, an IAF Cheetah helicopter crash landed at Natha Top in Jammu and Kashmir 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)