IAF plane Su-30 MKI goes missing in Assam
An Indian Air Force Su-30 MKI fighter jet has gone missing in Tezpur in India's eastern state of Assam.
Tezpur Air force station is located 172 km from the China border.
The plane apparently went off the radar, the authorities have sent a search party to locate the plane. The plane went missing at 11:30am(local time), around 60 km north of the Tezpur Indian Air Force base from where it had taken off, said a defence spokesman and the deputy commissioner of Sonitpur district where the IAF station is located.
Defence public relations officer (Guwahati/Shillong), Lt. Col. Suneet Newton told PTI that the aircraft had lost radar and radio contact with the airbase.
Sonitpur district Deputy Commissioner Manoj Kumar Deka told reporters in Tezpur that the Air Force base had informed him that the Su-30 MKI plane with two pilots had taken off from the airbase at 10:30am(local time) for a regular sortie and lost contact with the IAF air traffic control over Dubia in nearby Gohpur.
The DC said he then immediately alerted the neighbouring district administrations about the missing plane.
The first of the Su-30 planes were inducted by the IAF in the late 1990s. Since their induction, seven crashes have taken place. An inquiry into the plane accidents has primarily indicated technical failure as their cause.
The last Sukhoi crash occurred on March 15 when a Su-30 MKI had crashed in Rajasthan's Barmer, hours after a Chetak helicopter crash landed and toppled in Kaushambi near Allahabad.
(Developing)
A Sukhoi-30 aircraft airborne from Tejpur on a routine training mission lost radar and radio contact approx 60 km north of Tejpur in Assam.The aircraft is overdue and actions have been initiated (WION)
(PTI)