Daijiworld Media Network

New Delhi, Aug 5: A Jaguar fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) that crashed on Thursday August 4 in UP’s Gorakhpur killed the pilot, flight Lieutenant S Pandey, and a farmer.

Pandey was on a training sortie when the aircraft spun out of control and crashed killing a farmer on the ground and then sunk into a nearby pond.

Earlier this week Flight Lieutenant M S Pillai died in a training sortie while flying a MiG 21 in Nal, Bikaner. Both the incidents have been reported to have  occurred due to pilot error as initial investigations showed no defect in the upgraded Mig-21 “Bison”.

Both crashes come within days of the induction of the new chief of air staff, Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne who is a Jaguar pilot.

A senior air force official said “It is too early for us to draw any conclusions but in both cases, these were young pilots with about 40 hours of flying behind them.”

“We are still trying to locate the FDR (data recorder) of the aircraft, which will have all the details, but we are guessing that the pilot lost control,” he added.