The aircraft had taken off from the Pathankot air base on a routing sortie at 12:20 pm. It crashed around 1:20 pm in Patta Jattian village in Jawali, around 70 km from Dharamshala.
The fighter jet crashed in Mehra Palli village under the Jawali police station, Kangra Superintendent of Police (SP) Santosh Patial said.
The pilot of the jet, Squadron Leader Meet Kumar was killed in the crash.
The IAF has ordered a court of inquiry into the crash.
We express deep grief at the martyrdom of a brave air warrior. At1220 hrs today, a MiG21 of @IAF_MCC ,airborne fro… https://t.co/RuZIVzU9qQ
MiG-21 BIS is one of the oldest variants of this jet.
Image from Lok Sabha website.
Season of aircraft crashes
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On June 8, Indian Air Force's 'Jaguar' developed a snag while landing and had a minor accident. The pilot was on a routine training mission from the Jamnagar Air Force base.
On June 5, Air Commodore Sanjay Chauhan passed away after his plane went down in the Mundra taluk of the Kutch region in northwestern Gujarat. This was the second alarming incident in the month of June 2018 with an Indian Air Force Jaguar.
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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.
