An Indian Air Force MIG-21 aircraft crashed mid-air in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Tuesday morning. The pilot who was flying a training sortie died in the incident. The authorities have ordered a Court of Inquiry to know the facts of the crash.
Eyewitnesses said that they unusually saw smoke billowing out of the aircraft when they were working in their fields.
“One MiG-21 aircraft crashed about 10 kilometer short of Awantipur Airbase, pilot airborne from Srinagar, was on routine training sortie”, an IAF statement said.
“A Court of Inquiry has been ordered to investigate into the cause of the accident”, the statement added.Hundreds of locals gathered at the crash site and recorded the incident on their cellphones. The body of the pilot was recovered and carried to an IAF base.
Reacting on the air-crash, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said that the Centre must address the defence procurement issue of the armed forces at the earliest. “Not entirely disconnected from today’s crash the new Govt needs to sort (out) defence procurement issue for Navy, Air Force & Army ASAP,” he wrote on twitter.