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New Delhi: Two Indian Air Drive fighter jets crashed Saturday, killing one pilot, in an obvious mid-air collision whereas on workouts in Morena district of Madhya Pradesh on Saturday
The crash concerned a Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30, carrying two pilots, and a French-built Mirage 2000, operated by a 3rd.
Each plane had taken off within the morning from the Gwalior air base, round 50 kilometres east of the place they got here down.
“The plane had been on routine operational flying coaching mission,” the Air Drive stated in an announcement, including that one of many three pilots had sustained deadly accidents.
An investigation was underway to find out the reason for the crash, it added.
Police officer Dharmender Gaur advised AFP from the scene of the crash that one other pilot had been discovered alive however injured within the forests of Padargarh round 300 kilometres.
“We now have positioned the wreckage of one of many planes,” the officer stated. “The opposite aircraft has possible fallen additional away from the location and we’ve got despatched groups to find it.”
Native authorities had been instructed to help with the air drive’s rescue and aid work, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan tweeted.
“I pray to god that the pilots of the planes are protected,” he added.
The crash is the most recent in a string of aviation accidents involving India’s army air fleet.
5 military troopers had been killed final October when their helicopter crashed in Arunachal Pradesh.
It was the second army chopper crash within the state that month, coming weeks after a Cheetah helicopter got here down close to the city of Tawang, killing its pilot.
Defence chief, Basic Bipin Rawat, was amongst 13 individuals killed when his Russian-made Mi-17 helicopter crashed whereas transporting him to an air drive base in December 2021.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authorities is grappling with the pressing process of overhauling India’s outdated armed forces.
Its army institution is fretting over a rising assertiveness by China alongside its huge Himalayan frontier, which in 2019 sparked a lingering diplomatic freeze after a lethal high-altitude confrontation between troops of each nations.
India unveiled its first domestically constructed plane provider final yr as a part of authorities efforts to construct an indigenous defence trade and cut back reliance on Russia, traditionally its most necessary arms provider.
An effort to reform army recruitment to trim down India’s bloated defence payroll stalled final yr after a backlash from aspiring troopers, who burned practice carriages and clashed with police in fierce protests.
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