An Indian Air Force (IAF) Hawk advanced trainer jet crashed Tuesday in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district near the Jharkhand border.
The trainee pilot helming the plane ejected himself safely but received some injuries. The aircraft had taken off on a routine training sortie from Kalaikunda Air Force station in Kharagpur. An investigation has been ordered into the accident.
The incident comes a little over a month after a Microlight Virus SW-80 helicopter of the IAF crashed in Assam’s Majuli island, killing two pilots Wing Commander J James and Wing Commander D Vats.
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In the Assam crash, the pilots attempted an emergency landing but the aircraft crashed in a sand bar in the northern part of the district and went up in flames, Tezpur-based defence spokesperson Lt. Col. Harshvardhan Pande told PTI.
This is not the first time an Indian Air Force plane has crashed.
In october, five military personnel were killed and one critically wounded when an Indian Air Force helicopter crashed at Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh.
A court of Inquiry had been ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident.
