Two Indian Air Force fighter jets that had taken off from the Gwalior Air Base crashed separately at Bharatpur in Rajasthan and Morena, Madhya Pradesh, on Saturday morning, killing one pilot.
Sources said there is a possibility that there was a mid-air collision between the Mirage 2000 and the Sukhoi 30 (Su-30 MKI), given that the two aircraft crashed at the same time, at sites not far away from each other, but there is no official confirmation of this. A Court of Inquiry will establish the exact reason, the IAF said.
#WATCH | Wreckage seen. A Sukhoi-30 and Mirage 2000 aircraft crashed near Morena, Madhya Pradesh. Search and rescue operations launched. The two aircraft had taken off from the Gwalior air base where an exercise was going on. pic.twitter.com/xqCJ2autOe
— ANI (@ANI) January 28, 2023
The pilot who was killed was identified as Wing Commander Hanumanth Rao Sarathi. He was in the Mirage 2000 jet that crashed at Morena. The two pilots in the Su-30 MKI, which crashed in Bharatpur, managed to eject safely.
“Two fighter aircraft of the IAF were involved in an accident near Gwalior today morning. The aircraft were on routine operational flying training mission,” the IAF said in a statement. “One of the three pilots involved sustained fatal injuries.”
As per sources in the IAF, the pilots were part of the Gwalior-based Tactics and Air Combat Development Establishment (TACDE), and were flying the mission as part of the fighter combat leader course, under which IAF pilots across streams undergo rigorous and complex aerial combat training.
Established in 1971, the TACDE is the premier air combat training establishment for the ‘Top Guns’ of the IAF.
As per sources, Wing Commander Sarathi was a directing staff at the TACDE. At least one of the two Su-30 MKI pilots was undergoing the fighter combat leader course.
Wreckage of a crashed aircraft found in Bharatpur district. (PTI)
Morena District Collector Ankit Asthana told PTI that debris of both aircraft fell in the Pahargarh area of the district, with some falling in Bharatpur area, bordering Madhya Pradesh.
The PTI report also quoted eyewitnesses as hearing a deafening sound and sighting balls of fire falling to the ground, followed by two persons in uniform parachuting into the thicket nearby. The eyewitnesses said some people got the two men out, and an IAF chopper later flew them for treatment to Gwalior.
A Rajasthan official told The Indian Express: “The Sukhoi flew till it lost altitude and crashed in Bharatpur.” Superintendent of Police, Bharatpur, Shyam Singh said: “There was no loss of life locally. The aircraft fell in a field near the village.”
Sources said that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh was briefed on the incident by IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari, and was monitoring the developments closely.
Manufactured by Dassault Aviation, the Mirage 2000 is a French multirole, single-engine fourth-generation fighter jet. India has a fleet of 50 Mirage 2000s which were bought in different batches for strategic missions, beginning 1985, and has a good safety record. The Mirage 2000 squadrons are based in Gwalior.
As per available data, the aircraft has been involved in five crashes since 2010, the latest being at Madhya Pradesh’s Bhind district in October 2021. In 2019, two pilots died after an upgraded Mirage 2000 aircraft crashed in Bengaluru soon after taking off.
Developed by Russia and made under licence by India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, the Su-30 MKI is a twin-engine multirole air superiority fighter.
The IAF currently has around 260 of these frontline aircraft and is pushing their long-delayed upgradation programme which will involve arming them with better weapons, avionics and sensors to extend their shelf life further by decades. Around 10 Su-30s have crashed since 2010.
