SU-30 MKI aircraft of IAF crashes in Assam's Karbi Anglong

A Su-30 MKI fighter jet of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed in Assam's Karbi Anglong district on Thursday. The IAF said the search operation for the aircraft is underway. There is no information on the pilots of the aircraft. The Su-30MKI, which was on a training mission, crashed in the area of Karbi Anglong, approximately 60 km from Jorhat, the IAF said in a brief statement. Search operations are underway, it said. Earlier, officials said the aircraft went missing shortly after taking off from the Jorhat airbase. Communication with the Russian-origin aircraft was lost at 7:42 pm, they had said. Su-30MKI is a two-seater multirole long-range fighter jet developed by Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi. It is now built under licence by HAL for the Indian Air Force (IAF). The IAF operates a fleet of over 260 Su-30MKI jets. A Sukhoi fighter plane had crashed in the Nashik district of Maharashtra in June 2024. Another Sukhoi-30 jet had crashed in January 2023, after taking off from the Gwalior airbase.