An external tank on one of India's domestically-produced light combat Tejas aircraft fell from the sky on Tuesday morning in farmland at Irugur of Coimbatore in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The incident took place during a training session from Sulur, which is also the Tejas' base station .
"Today morning around 0840hrs local time one fuel drop tank fell off from a Tejas aircraft on a routine sortie. The aircraft landed safely after the incident. No damage was reported on ground. The cause of the incident is being investigated", the IAF said in a statement.
Fuel tank of the LCA Tejas aircraft of the @IAF_MCC fell down in farm land near Sulur air base during a flight today morning at 8:30 am. No damage no casualties.@rpbreakingnews #indianairforce pic.twitter.com/1sFxBsY2NI
— Purushottam Reddy (@puruam) July 2, 2019
The squadron of the Tejas aircraft named the Flying Daggers or the No. 45 Squadron of the Indian Air Force. The base of the squadron shifted from Bengaluru to the Sulur Air Force station based in Coimbatore in July 2018. The Flying Daggers became the first fighter squadron of the Southern Air Command of the IAF to be headquartered in Thiruvananthapuram.
On 27 June, a major tragedy averted after a deep penetration Jaguar strike fighter jet crashed into a number of birds soon after take-off from Ambala base station in Punjab. The hit resulted in the failure of one of its engines. Despite the looming emergencies, the young pilot successfully landed the jet at the base and also saved the lives of many civilians in the area adjoining the airfield.
