A crash took place an Indian Air Force training aircraft in the Udedurgam Reserve Forests in the Khrisnagiri District, on Thursday evening. The pilot and the co-pilot have ejected themselves from the flight, eye-witnesses said. According to the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in Bangalore, the incident took place during flight-testing.The aircraft, which had burst into flames, crashed about 35 km away from Hosur.
With the help of parachutes, the two flight tenants – two squadron leaders – were able to land away from the crash site, about 650 ft. Further.
They weren’t able to land securely however. They were both wounded. One of them sustained a harsh leg injury, and the other became comatosed. With the help of an IAF helicopter, they were taken to Bangalore.
At Bangalore, a person identification exposed that the pilot and co-pilot were Squadron Leader Bathra and Squadron Leader Mathu.
The airlifting of the injured Air Force officials from the crash site was taken care of rather fast. The persons in charge if this process were District forest Officer A.K. Ulaganathan, Assistant Conservator C.H. Padma and certain other forest officials and employees from Denkanikottai Range.
One helicopter has been used to airlift the injured officers. Meanwhile however, the personnel of the Air Force in another helicopter were used to locate the aircraft’s Black Box.
Executive Director (HR) of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, T. Sudhakar Rao, revealed some information concerning the crash in a press release, saying that the crashed aircraft was an IJT (Intermediate Jet Trainer).
The accident occurred during a routine flight of the prototype aircraft S-3466, taking place at around 3.10 pm. Though both the test pilots on board were able to eject safely, the HAL had other plans, constituting a court of inquiry, which normally probed such incidents.
