As the IAF has started investigations to ascertain the cause of the air mishap near Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh on Saturday, its teams on Sunday recovered the black box of the ill-fated Mirage-2000 and a part of the flight data recorder of the SU-30 MKI. Efforts were on to retrieve all the parts of the black box or the data recorder of the SU-30 to enable the board of inquiry to find out the reason for the accident.
The data recorder of the Mirage-2000 and the SU-30 were found in the Morena district where both planes went down. Wing Commander Hanumanth Rao Sarathi flying the Mirage was killed while the two pilots of the SU-30 managed to eject before the crash. They were now undergoing medical treatment, officials said here.
As regards the recovery of the data recorder and collecting the wreckage of both the planes, officials said teams of IAF studied and inspected a forested area of Pahargarh where the debris of the two fighter jets fell on Saturday.
The two frontline combat aircraft of the IAF crashed during a training mission in Morena possibly due to mid-air collision when the wings of the two aircraft brushed against each other while flying at speeds of more than 800kms.
A black box, or the flight data recorder, is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft and helps in the investigation of flight accidents.
Pahargarh area police inspector Dharmendra Gour said the forested area where the wreckage fell has been cordoned off.
“Even police are not being allowed in the (cordoned off) area. Officials of IAF are present there,” he said. Media personnel are also not allowed in the area.
Defence experts have said the Russian-designed Sukhoi-30MKI jet and the French Mirage-2000 possibly had a mid-air collision, but there was no official comment on the cause of the crash from the IAF.
Both the jets had taken off from the Gwalior Air Force station. The base has squadrons of both Sukhoi-30MKIs and the Mirage 2000 jets. The crash took place at about 5.30am.
Morena Collector Ankit Asthana on Saturday said the debris of both aircraft fell in the Pahargarh area of the district and also in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur, which borders Madhya Pradesh.
A high-level probe has been ordered into the accident, officials earlier said. It was the first Mirage 2000 as well as Sukhoi-30MKI that the IAF lost in a mid-air collision.
The SU-30MKI is a twin-seater combat jet, while the Mirage 2000, manufactured by French aerospace major Dassault Aviation, is a single-seater aircraft.
