An Indian Air Force Mirage 2000H fighter crashed near Gwalior today. There was no loss of life reported as the pilot had ejected from the plane. An IAF spokesperson said: ‘‘The plane went down after an undercarriage failure. The IAF has set up a court of inquiry into the crash. The aircraft was on a practice interception mission and crashed at about 12:45 this afternoon.’’ The nosewheel of the plane fell off after it left the air base. The pilot, Squadron Leader H.S. Gill of 7 Squadron (Battle Axes), jettisoned fuel, headed towards an uninhabited area and ejected somewhere between Gwalior and Bhopal. He was picked up by IAF helicopters and brought back to Gwalior. This is the fourth Mirage that has crashed since the aircraft was inducted in 1985 and comes 10 years after the last incident in January 1994. In October 1989, the 7 Squadron’s commanding officer Wing Commander Ramesh Bakshi was killed in Gwalior when his Mirage lost control and crashed during a flypast on Air Force Day, killing two people on the ground as well. Mirage 2000s were scrambled during the Kargil war, when the IAF found it had no other aircraft that could perform at high altitudes on ground strike missions. The Mirages were used significantly in the operations at Tiger Hill and Point 4388 in Drass Sector — they were used in almost half of the 1,199 jet fighter sorties during the conflict. The IAF will also shortly be replacing Gwalior-based 9 Squadron’s MiG-27s with a new fleet of Mirage 2000s.
