Two pilots were killed in the crash of a Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter jet in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district, the Indian Air Force said on Friday (March 6). The jet, which was on a training mission, crashed approximately 60 km from Jorhat air base, from where it had taken off on Thursday evening.

“IAF acknowledges the loss of Sqn Ldr Anuj and Flt Lt Purvesh Duragkar, who sustained fatal injuries in the Su-30 crash. All personnel of the IAF express sincere condolences and stand firmly with the bereaved family in this time of grief,” the IAF said in a post on X.

A defence spokesperson said in Guwahati that the debris of the aircraft was located early on Friday. The IAF search and rescue team, assisted by civil and police administration and villagers, had trekked to the site and located the debris around 1 am, the official told PTI.

Earlier, officials said the aircraft went missing shortly after taking off from the Jorhat airbase. Communication with the Russian-origin aircraft was lost at 7:42 pm, they had said.

"An IAF Su-30 MKI is reported overdue. The aircraft had taken off from Jorhat air base in Assam and was last in contact at 7:42 pm," Defence PRO Lt Col Mahender Rawat had said in a statement.

An aircraft is termed overdue if it fails to arrive at its destination or fails to report within 30 minutes of its estimated time of arrival (ETA) or last reported position, prompting activation of search and rescue (SAR) procedures.

Su-30MKI is a two-seater multirole long-range fighter jet developed by Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi. It is now built under licence by HAL for the Indian Air Force (IAF). The IAF operates a fleet of over 260 Su-30MKI jets. A Sukhoi fighter plane had crashed in the Nashik district of Maharashtra in June 2024. Another Sukhoi-30 jet had crashed in January 2023, after taking off from the Gwalior airbase.

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