A pilot was killed after an Indian Air Force MiG-21 Bison aircraft crashed while taking off for a combat training mission at an airbase in central India.
Group Captain A. Gupta had no time to eject and died in the crash.
The MiG-21 Bison is a single-engine, single-seater multirole fighter/ground attack aircraft of Russian origin that forms the backbone of the Indian Air Force. It has a max speed of 2230 km/h (Mach 2.1) and carries one 23mm twin barrel cannon with four R-60 close combat missiles.
More than 285 pilots of the Indian Air Force have lost their lives over the past six decades in crashes involving various aircraft, as per data provided by the Indian Defence Ministry.