The IAF Sukhoi Su-30 fighter went missing near the India-China border on Tuesday.
Highlights
- Indian Air Force Su-30 fighter jet went missing on Tuesday
- Wreckage found in heavily forested area, 60 km from Tezpur in Assam
- There is no sign of survivors yet, say sources
The wreckage of an Air Force Sukhoi Su-30 jet that went missing with two pilots on board has been found. There is no sign of survivors.
The aircraft has been found in a heavily forested area about 60 km from Tezpur in Assam, where it went missing on Tuesday. "As of now, weather is bad and the place has dense foliage and members of the search operation are yet to reach the spot," Defence spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Sombit Ghosh told the Press Trust of India.
The jet took off around 9:30 am on Tuesday on a routine training sortie and went off the radar near the Doulasang area of Arunachal Pradesh, which borders China.
The last contact with the pilots was around 11:30 am, when the aircraft was nearly 60 km north of Tezpur; the wreckage has been found in the same area. The Tezpur Air Force station is 172 km from the China border.
The Sukhoi Su-30 is a Russian-made, twin-engine fighter meant for all-weather, air-to-air and air-to-surface missions. The first of the Su-30 planes were inducted by the IAF in the late 1990s.
The Sukhoi Su-30 jet crashed 60 kilometres from Tezpur
Since then, six crashes have taken place. An inquiry into the accidents has indicated mostly technical failure.
In March, a Sukhoi-30 aircraft crashed near an air base in Rajasthan's Barmer. Both pilots had ejected to safety.
The aircraft was inducted in Tezpur air base in 2009. At present, Tezpur has two squadrons of SU-30 aircraft, each comprising 12 to 16 aircraft.