The black box of the Mirage 2000 and a part of the flight data recorder of the Sukhoi-30MKI jet, which had crashed in Madhya Pradesh's Morena district, have been found in the wreckage, an official said on Sunday.
Indian Air Force (IAF) teams 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, resulting in the death of a wing commander while two other pilots ejected safely.
"The black box of the Mirage aircraft has been found from the wreckage in Pahargarh area of Morena. A part of the Sukhoi aircraft's black box has also been found and the remaining part of the recorder might have fallen in Bharatpur," Morena Superintendent of Police Ashutosh Bagri told the Press Trust of India over the phone. "The IAF, police and other departments are searching for the remaining part of the Sukhoi aircraft recorder," he added.
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.
A team during an operation on January 29, 2023 to clear the debris and recover evidence after a Su-30MKI and a Mirage 2000 fighter planes crashed during an exercise in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena district. | Photo Credit: PTI
No IAF comment on crash’s cause
Pahargarh area police inspector Dharmendra Gour said that 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 that 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 Mirage 2000 jets. 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.
Morena Collector Ankit Asthana on Saturday said that 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 said earlier. While the Mirage aircraft's pilot, identified as Wing Commander Hanumanth Rao Sarathi, was killed in the accident, the two pilots of the Sukhoi aircraft managed to eject and land. They were taken to a military hospital, they had said.
