Two Indian Air Force pilots killed in fighter jet crash in Rajasthan

The IAF has lost three pilots, one paratrooper, three Jaguars and one Mirage over the past six months -- all in peacetime

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An Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter jet crashed in Rajasthan during training on Wednesday, killing both onboard pilots.

 

The Jaguar trainer aircraft met with an accident during a routine training mission and crashed near Churu, the IAF said in a post on X.

 

“Both pilots sustained fatal injuries in the accident,” the IAF said, adding that no civilian property was reported damaged.   

 

A court of inquiry has been commissioned, and the cause or causes of the accident will likely be known internally to the IAF in the coming months. 

The IAF has lost three pilots, one paratrooper, three Jaguars and one Mirage in crashes over the past six months -- all in peacetime.

 

Wednesday’s incident was the fourth IAF fighter jet to crash during training this year. On April 2, a pilot died and another was injured in Jamnagar, Gujarat. The crash involved a similar two-seat Jaguar that crashed after being airborne at night. Three days later a paratrooper from the IAF’s skydiving team died after crash-landing during a demonstration in Agra, Uttar Pradesh. 

 

Other pilots managed to eject safely in the earlier crashes in Ambala, Haryana and Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh, on March 7 and February 25, respectively. 

 

The IAF’s inquiries into the past three fighter jet crashes were categorised as “most severe”. Jet accidents or incidents are placed in categories, depending on the extent of damage. This year’s incidents or accidents are not unusual, as compared to global data, where the mishap rate is based on flight time, according to analysts. For the IAF, the rate is one accident for every 10,000 flying hours.

 

The 34 accidents involving IAF fighter jets between 2017 and 2022 were attributed to human error, technical defect, foreign-object damage (things get sucked into the aero engine), and bird strikes.

 

From 1991 to 2000, there were 283 accidents – 42 per cent were due to human error – and 4,418 incidents, in which 221 aircraft were completely destroyed and 100 IAF pilots were killed.

 

The accident rate of fighter jets in India had declined from a peak of 0.93 (2000-2005) to 0.27 (2017-2022) and 0.20 (2020-2024), according to a 2024-25 report of the parliamentary standing committee on defence.

 

The IAF had 238 basic, intermediate and advanced trainer aircraft against a sanctioned strength of 368 last year.