The black box of the MiG-27 aircraft, which crashed on Saturday in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district, was retrieved on Sunday.
The black box or digital flight data recorder was located from near the spot in Bhotputti village where the crash took place, a senior Air Force officer told reporters in Jalpaiguri .
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
The number of casualties in the MiG 27 fighter plane crash in West Bengal rose to three after two children hit by splinters of the aircraft died at a hospital here, police said on Sunday.
Latika Roy and Purnima Roy died at the North Bengal Medical College on Saturday night.
Three people, two of them admitted to the North Bengal Medical College and another at the Jalpaiguri district hospital, continued to be critical.
ADVERTISEMENT
One civilian died when the aircraft crashed in Jalpaiguri district on Saturday morning. Splinters of the aircraft were scattered over an area of 500-metre radius.
Seven of the 16 injured were minors.
Squadron Leader Saket Verma, the pilot, ejected safely, said an Indian Air Force (IAF) spokesman at the Eastern Air Command headquarters in Shillong.
The pilot had flown from the Hashimara airbase on a routine sortie. Hashimara is under administrative control of the Eastern Air Command.
The pilot landed at the Saptibari High School playground, about 10 km from the crash spot. He was given first aid at the Saptibari primary health centre.
The aircraft had lost contact with the air traffic control at Hashimara before it crashed.
This is the fourth crash involving a MiG fighter plane this year.