IAF Plane Crashlands Near Odisha-Jharkhand Border, Pilot Safe

Baripada: Panic gripped Mahulatangiri village near Jhadapokharia on Odisha-Jharkhand border after a plane of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashlanded on its outskirts in the early afternoon on Tuesday.

However, the pilot who managed to escape by pressing the eject button of his cockpit, suffered minor injuries. He was rushed to the nearby community health centre at Bahadagoda in Jharkhand by the villagers. Sources in the hospital said the condition of the pilot is stable.

Sources said an IAF plane from Kalaikunda Air Force Station near Kharagpur in the Midnapore West district of West Bengal was on a routine flight over Odisha-Jharkhand air space in the morning.

Some eyewitnesses in Rairangpur told the media that they had seen smoke billowing out of the tail of the IAF plane.

After some time, the plane crashlanded near Topa Ghat of Subarnarekha river near Sirsa under Sarasakana block in Mayurbhanj district.

Though it is believed that technical snag was the cause of the crash, however, the exact cause was not immediately known.

Meanwhile, an IAF team rushed to the mishap site for an on-the-spot investigation. Sources said the team has collected the black box of the plane to know the exact cause of the crash.

Besides a fire brigade team from Jhadapokharia has rushed to the spot for rescue work, the sources added.