Morena (Madhya Pradesh): Following a plane crash near Madhya Pradesh's Morena on Saturday, the black box of the Indian Air Force's Mirage 2000 and part of the in-flight recorder of the Sukhoi Su-30MKI have been recovered from the wreckage, officials said. The incident that occurred after the two aircraft took off for a routine air sortie from the Gwalior air base and crashed, which resulted in the death of Wing Commander Hanumanth Rao Sarathi, who was flying the Mirage 2000.
The black box of the Mirage aircraft has been recovered from the wreckage at the spot in Morena's Pahargarh area. A part of the Sukhoi's data recorder was also found at the spot and remaining was suspected have fallen in the crash spot in Rajasthan's Bharatpur, reports cited Morena SP Ashutosh Bagri as saying.
Also read: Pilot killed after Mirage, Sukhoi fighters 'collide mid-air' in Madhya Pradesh
On Saturday, Morena district officials informed that pieces of wreckage from both aircraft were found at the spot in Pahargarh, adding that some wreckage also fell in Rajasthan's Bharatpur. While the Mirage crashed in Morena, the Su-30 was able to continue fly some more time, and both its pilots ejected safely before the plane crashed in neighbouring Rajasthan's Bharatpur. According to an aviation expert, it was the first Mirage 2000 as well as Sukhoi-30MKI that the IAF lost in a mid-air collision. The SU-30MKI is a twin-seater Russian-designed combat jet, while the Mirage 2000, manufactured by French aerospace major Dassault Aviation, is a single-seater aircraft.
