By Giwa SHILE
An Indian Air Force pilot was killed on Wednesday when his Russia-made MiG-27 fighter jet crashed in a field in northern India, a spokesman for the air force said.
“The aircraft had taken off from a base in Pathankot on a routine flight,’’ Indian Air Force spokesman Anupam Banerjee said. Pathankot lies in Punjab state near India’s border with Pakistan.
“We do not know the cause of the accident yet. It was a routine flight. A court of inquiry will look into it,’’ Banerjee said.
The Indian Air Force has suffered a spate of crashes involving its helicopters and fighter planes, most of them Russian-made MiGs.
The Air Force had said in the past that reasons for these crashes were mechanical failures and human eerror.
