IAF’s Jaguar aircraft crashes near Ambala, pilot ejects safely

Manish Sirhindi

Tribune News Service 

Landhi (Ambala), March 5

An Indian Air Force Jaguar fighter jet that developed some technical problems seven minutes after taking off from Ambala Air Force Station crashed into an un-populated area in the Landhi village, 18 km from Ambala on Thursday.

The Flight Lieutenant, Vivek Chaudhary, nose-dived the aircraft to avoid crashing it into the populated areas and instead chose wheat fields that were surrounded by villages on all sides. He ejected before the crash and landed at Landha village about 500 meters from the crash site in Landhi village.

According to the sources, the Jaguar that took off from the Ambala Air Force Station at 1 pm reported some technical difficultly at around 1:04 pm. As the flight lieutenant could no longer recover the plane mid-air, he decided to eject himself from the fighter jet that landed on the ground at 1.07 pm.

Soon after the crash, two Air Force helicopters arrived at the site where the fight lieutenant had landed and rescued him.

Kurukshetra’s Superintendent of Police, Simardeep Singh, said, “The fighter aircraft crashed in the fields. According to preliminary information, the pilot ejected from the plane before it fell in the fields. He was reported to have sustained injuries.”

An IAF spokesperson said the pilot gave a distress call before ejection.

The Jaguar had crashed 700 metres from IOC’s Panipat-Jalandhar underground pipeline. No damage to the pipeline has been reported.

The debris of the plane was spread all over the fields.

According to some eyewitness accounts, the plane swirled before falling to the ground. — With PTI inputs