Two IAF pilots get killed in Microlight aircraft crash

Two Indian Air Force pilots were killed when a microlight aircraft they were travelling in crashed in Assam's Majuli region on Thursday. The pilots were Wing Commander-rank officers.

The microlight aircraft crashed soon after it took off from the Jorhat air base on a routine sortie around noon, officials said.

The wreckage of the two-seater plane has been sighted and a court of inquiry



ordered, the officials said in New Delhi.

Tezpur-based defence spokesperson Lt. Col. Harshvardhan Pande told PTI that the two pilots killed in the crash were identified as Wing Commander Jai Paul James and Wing Commander D Vats.

The pilots attempted an emergency landing but the aircraft crashed at a sand bar in the northern part of the district and went up in flames, the official said.