During the Vayushakti 2019 exercise,  MiG-27 aircraft airborne crashed on Tuesday evening in Khatolai village near Pokhran firing Range. Pilot ejected safely. 

The pilot had gone on practice at Tuesday evening with the Jaisalmer Air Force Station MiG-27. Jaisalmer SP Kiran Kang said no casualty has been reported so far, and a police team is in touch with Air Force officials.

She said a police team rushed to the spot.

A few hours before the accident, in Delhi, IAF’s Vice Chief Air Marshal Anil Khosla, during an interaction with reporters, had said that life of a pilot is the most important, and then other factors come lower in priority list.

“Whenever accidents are reported, the first reaction of senior officers is - Is the pilot safe? Then, loss of life on ground due to crash of an aircraft, and then the question is about the whereabouts of the aircraft, and its safety. This is the sequence which takes place,” he had said.  The senior IAF officer also said that more awareness need to be raised about bird activity, which is one of the factors for crash incidents, and hinted about civilian habitations near airfields drawing bird activity.

Earlier airlfields used to be located in wilderness, but now there is lot of built area near lot of these bases, and solid waste attracts birds and, chances of accidents increase, he had said.