The crash took place just before 9 am after the instructor, a Squadron Leader-rank officer, and the cadet had taken off from the Air Force Academy at Dundigal, near Hyderabad, in the propeller-driven aircraft on a routine training sortie.
“Both the pilots on board sustained fatal injuries in the crash. No damage to any civil life or property on the ground was reported. A court of inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident,” an IAF officer said.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh said, “Anguished by this accident. It is deeply saddening that two pilots have lost their lives. In this tragic hour, my thoughts are with the bereaved families.”
60 military personnel lost lives in over 50 crashes in 5 years
Defence minister Rajnath Singh said, “Anguished by this accident near Hyderabad. It is deeply saddening that two pilots have lost their lives. In this tragic hour, my thoughts are with the bereaved families.”
Though military aviation is inherently risky, the Indian armed forces have been dogged by an unusually high crash rate. Apart from civilians on the ground, around 60 military personnel have lost their lives in over 50 different aircraft and helicopter accidents in the IAF, Army and Navy in the last five years alone.
IAF uses Pilatus basic trainer aircraft (BTA) for Stage-1 training of rookie pilots after 75 of the turboprop planes were procured under a Rs 2,896 crore deal inked in May 2012. But IAF’s case for inking another contract for 38 more such trainers for Rs 1,450 crore was scrapped after the Swiss company was found to have hired arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari, as was reported by TOI.
Defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics, in turn, is now producing the indigenous Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 (HTT-40) aircraft for the IAF, under a Rs 6,828 crore contract for 70 such planes inked in March this year. The HTT-40, which has an indigenous content of around 56% at present, will be supplied to the IAF over the next six years to address the existing shortage of BTA for rookie pilots in the IAF.
Watch Telangana: 2 IAF Trainee pilots killed as aircraft crashes in Medak district
