2 IAF fighter jets crash near Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior

The two aircraft had taken off from the Gwalior air base in Madhya Pradesh where an exercise was going on. One pilot was killed and two others received serious injuries after two fighter aircrafts, a Sukhoi-30 and a Mirage 2000 aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed on Saturday while on exercise, confirmed the IAF.

Taking to Twitter, IAF wrote, “Two fighter aircraft of IAF were involved in an accident near Gwalior today morning. The aircraft were on routine operational flying training mission. One of the 3 pilots involved, sustained fatal injuries. An inquiry has been ordered to determine the cause of the accident.”

Preliminary reports suggested that one aircraft fell in Morena in Madhya Pradesh and other reportedly went down in the general area around Bharatpur, the sources said. The Sukhoi-30 had two pilots while Mirage 2000 had one pilot during the crash.

Videos from the crash site shot by locals in Morena have gone viral on social media platforms, and it shows the smouldering debris of the aircraft strewn on the ground

According to a report by The Economic Times, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has also been briefed about the crash by Indian Air Force Chief, and he had enquired about the well-being of the IAF pilots who are being monitored closely. The IAF has ordered a court of inquiry to examine if a mid-air collision led to the crash.