In its first accident, a Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas of the Indian Air Force crashed near a hostel in Jaisalmer’s Jawahar colony in Rajasthan on Tuesday during an operational training sortie. The pilot ejected safely.
IAF Shares First Statement
“One Tejas aircraft of the Indian Air Force met with an accident at Jaisalmer, today during an operational training sortie. The pilot ejected safely. A Court of Inquiry has been constituted to find out the cause of the accident.”
Has there been any earlier LCA crash?
No. Since its inaugural flight almost 23 years ago this is the first incident involving the indigenous fighter jet.
The Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, produced domestically supersonic aircraft flown by the Indian Air Force is in news today as it crashed. The programme was initiated by the government in 1984, and to oversee its development, Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) was established.
State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) headed the design and development of the LCA Tejas. In 2003, the programme was officially named ‘Tejas,’ which translates to ‘radiance’ in Sanskrit, by then-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The LCA is the second supersonic fighter jet developed by HAL, the first was HAL HF-24 Marut.
Financial Express Online has reported previously, that IAF has placed an order of Rs 36,468 crore for 83 LCA Mk 1A Tejas aircraft with HAL. The delivery of the same was scheduled for February 2024, however, there is a slight delay.
In 2016, the IAF got its first LCA, and for the development of the LCA Mk2, more than Rs 9,000 crore was sanctioned.
Other crashes
Earlier last month, a Hawk trainer aircraft of the IAF met with an accident during a training sortie in West Bengal. The plane crashed in the civilian area near the Kalaikunda Air Force Station. However, there was no loss of life or damage to any civilian property. Both the pilots ejected safely.
Just last week, a female pilot had sustained injuries when a plane from a flight training academy crashed at Madhya Pradesh’s Guna aerodrome. The incident occurred when a trainee aircraft — en route from Neemuch to Dhana — experienced a malfunction, leading to an emergency landing where control was lost, Sub Inspector Chanchal Tiwari (Guna).
Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had also addressed the incident in a post on the microblogging site X.
“Worrying news has been received about the crash of a trainee aircraft flying on the Neemuch-Dhana-Guna sector at Guna Air Strip. The female trainee pilot is undergoing treatment in the hospital. The reasons for the accident are being investigated. I pray to God for the health of the pilot,” Scindia wrote on X.