Defence PRO Harsh Wardhan Pande said that in an unfortunate event two young pilots of the Indian Air Force died in a microlight aircraft crash near Assam. The microlight aircraft crashed near the river island of Majuli in Assam, the crash happened just after it took off from the Jorhat air base. According to the officials, the aircraft on its routine sortie in the afternoon. A court of inquiry has been ordered after the wreckage of the two-wheeler was sighted near the crash site. In deceased were identified as Wing Commanders D Vats and Jai Paul.
The aircraft was on its way to a routine bird recce sortie when it crashed just after taking off from the Jorhat air base. The plane wreckage was found at the Sumori Mari village near south of Kamalabari. According to a statement by Air Officer Commanding (AOC) and Air Commodore S K Verma of Jorhat Air Force Station, in order to investigate the cause of accident a court of inquiry has been ordered. Lt. Colonel Harshwardhan Pande said that the two in the accident were pilots Wing Commander Jai Paul James and Wing Commander D Vats.
The pilots took off from Rworiah airport and just after few minutes, the aircraft crashed about twenty kilometers away along the banks of one of the biggest river island, Majuli island. The site of the crash has been identified as Darbar Chapori which has no human habitation and it is a sandbar in the river Brahmaputra. The officials were informed by the people around the nearby village when they spotted an aircraft going into flames mid-air. According to the first reports of the investigation, it is believed that one of the many small planes maintained by the Indian Army has developed some kind of technical fault in its main engine.
The two-seater aircraft tried to attempt an emergency landing but it crashed at Darbar Chapori near a sand bar in the Brahmaputra and caught fire bursting into flames. The investigating officers were informed by the villagers that the aircraft caught fire mid-air and started to spin finally crashing at the sandbar. Senior officials of the district along with Air Force Team from the Jorhat Airforce rushed to the crash site to investigate and take the bodies out from the wreckage.
In order to probe into the reason behind the crashing aircraft, a court of inquiry has been set up. A senior Indian Air Force official said that more information will be released only when the investigation team makes a report. The question arises here that was it the error in technology or it was just negligence of some people or some agency. Whatever may be the reason, the loss of IAf commander is a huge loss to our country.
