Indian Air Force Plane Involved In Accident At Bengal's Bagdogra Airport, Crew Safe

Kolkata: A transport aircraft AN-32 of the Indian Air Force (IAF) was involved in an accident at Bagdogra airport in West Bengal on Friday. According to reports, all the crew members are safe and the aircraft is being recovered from the accident site, IAF officials informed.

The cause of the accident is not known immediately but relevant authorities are monitoring the situation. Russian-origin AN-32 is among the widely used aircraft by the Indian Air Force for its transport operations. 

IAF's Jaguar fighter jet crashes near Panchkula  

AN-32 accident was the second incident on Friday after IAF's Jaguar fighter aircraft crashed near Baldwala village in Morni, a hilly region of Panchkula, Haryana.

According to IAF officials, the aircraft had taken off from the Ambala Air Force base for a routine evening sortie when it encountered a system malfunction and crashed.

Fortunately, the pilot of the Jaguar fighter jet managed to eject safely and landed using a parachute. An IAF official informed that an inquiry was ordered to probe the incident.

“A Jaguar fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed today in Panchkula, Haryana . The aircraft had taken off from the Ambala airbase on a training sortie. The pilot ejected from the aircraft. A court of inquiry has been ordered into the accident”, a statement issued by IAF read.

What is an AN-32 IAF transport aircraft? 

The Antonov An-32 is a turbo-propelled double-engined military transport aircraft and had been into military services since 1976.

The aircraft first flight was conducted in 1976 and displayed at the Paris Air Show in 1977. The plane was in production line between 1980-2012 and still remains in service since it can travel during rough weather conditions.

AN-32 is the fourth generation of the Antonov family succeeding earlier versions of the plane including An-24, An-30 and An-26.

The Antonov-32 is more a redesigned version of A-23, upgraded to withstand more rough weather conditions.

Compred to A-26, engine in A-32 has been raised 1.5 meters above the wing. This change in design is what gives this machine an advantage to work in bad weather conditions and protect it from hitting foreign objects.

The government factory in Kyiv, when it was part of the USSR, had produced 123 Antonov-32 aircraft for the Indian Air Force. The deal was signed between USSR leader Leonid Brezhnev and the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.