IAF's Jaguar aircraft crashes in UP, pilot ejects safely

A Jaguar fighter jet of the Indian Air Force crashed on Monday in Uttar Pradesh's Kushinagar district, making it the third accident by this twin-engine aircraft in the last seven months.

The pilot of the aircraft ejected safely, the IAF sources said.

The aircraft crashed soon after taking off on a routine mission from Gorakhpur, they said.

Police said the plane crashed in the Hatempur area of the district at around 12:30 pm. No casualty has been reported, they said.

The Jaguar had taken off from the Gorakhpur Air Force Station. The crash site is between Hata and Kasya villages, police said.

The IAF sources said a court of inquiry has been ordered by the air headquarters to investigate the accident.

On June 5 last year, a Jaguar fighter jet crashed in Gujarat's Kutch district soon after it took off from the Jamnagar air base, killing senior officer Air Commodore Sanjai Chauhan, the Air Officer Commanding Air Force Station Jamnagar.

On June 8, another Jaguar fighter jet developed a technical snag during landing at the Jamnagar Air Force base and the pilot's seat got "ejected automatically", an IAF official had said.