Jamnagar: It was around 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday when an Indian Air Force (IAF) Jaguar fighter aircraft went down during a routine training mission near Jamnagar in Gujarat. The crash took place in the open field of Suvarda village following a technical malfunction, hence tearing the very essence of the plane downwards.
While a piece of CCTV footage from a nearby house caught the moment a flash of light was seen in the sky, just before the killing descent.
The two pilots were aboard for training when the crisis came upon them. Via a simulation, one of them was ejected face-first before the jet crashed. He faced some ejection injuries and was rushed to the Guru Gobind Singh Government Hospital, where his vitals are now stable but still in danger. Unfortunately, the second pilot did not eject in time to save himself. He died on impact during the crash.
There was fire after the jet struck the ground, but the firefighters, there responding fast enough, were able to douse it out within moments. Luckily, there were no civilian fatalities on the ground, though the cause for the crash is not yet confirmed.
The Indian Air Force has opened a Court of Inquiry to probe into the technical failure caused by the incident leading to the crash, which will, in essence, aim to bring about the necessary awareness about technical issues that could be responsible for their happening, hence preventing the similar hazards from unfolding in the future.
Such incidents call attention to the risks in military aviation as well as the courage of aviators who participate in such high-stakes exercises.
[Source Credit: NDTV]
