An IAF fighter pilot - Wg Cdr R S Dhaliwal – at the controls of the indigenous Kiran Mk II (HPT-16) trainer aircraft of the acclaimed Surya Kiran Aerobatics Team (SKAT) was killed on Wednesday morning when a routine sortie ended in a fatal crash at around 0845 hours at Bidar, Karnataka, said the Indian Air Force.
The aircraft, crashed minutes after it took off from Bidar, hitting a vacant plot near the air force station, no loss of civilian life or property was reported in the incident.
The Air Headquarters ordered a court of inquiry into the mishap.
This is the second fatal air mishap involving the Surya Kiran pilots in the last three years, the previous one reported in March 2006 at the same air base in which two pilots were killed.
'Surya Kiran,' the IAF's aerobatics team, is only one of the four military squads performing nine-aircraft formation flying in the world and traces its history to the IAF's Hunter aircraft formation flying squad, the 'Thunderbolts' of 1982.
The team currently has 13 fighter pilots from the Mirage-2000, Jaguar, MiG-23 and MiG-27 streams.
The IAF counts SKAT among its fighter squadrons (No. 52 Squadron), as the sub-sonic Kiran trainers possess capacity to bomb enemy targets.
SKAT members should necessarily be Qualified Flying Instructor with over 2,000 hours of flying experience, including 1,000 hours on Kiran Mk II aircraft.
An experienced pilot, Dhaliwal had recently joined the aerobatics team. His body was flown to his native place in Patiala for last rites.
The aircraft, crashed minutes after it took off from Bidar, hitting a vacant plot near the air force station, no loss of civilian life or property was reported in the incident.
The Air Headquarters ordered a court of inquiry into the mishap.
This is the second fatal air mishap involving the Surya Kiran pilots in the last three years, the previous one reported in March 2006 at the same air base in which two pilots were killed.
'Surya Kiran,' the IAF's aerobatics team, is only one of the four military squads performing nine-aircraft formation flying in the world and traces its history to the IAF's Hunter aircraft formation flying squad, the 'Thunderbolts' of 1982.
The team currently has 13 fighter pilots from the Mirage-2000, Jaguar, MiG-23 and MiG-27 streams.
The IAF counts SKAT among its fighter squadrons (No. 52 Squadron), as the sub-sonic Kiran trainers possess capacity to bomb enemy targets.
SKAT members should necessarily be Qualified Flying Instructor with over 2,000 hours of flying experience, including 1,000 hours on Kiran Mk II aircraft.
An experienced pilot, Dhaliwal had recently joined the aerobatics team. His body was flown to his native place in Patiala for last rites.
No comments:
Post a Comment