An Indian army pilot was killed and two others injured in the apparent crash of two planes during a training exercise south of the capital New Delhi, the Indian air force (IAF) said Saturday.

The crash, which occurred around 10 a.m. local (5:30 a.m. in France) according to witnesses, involved a Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30 carrying two pilots and a French-made Mirage 2000, with one pilot on board. One of the three died from his injuries, the IAF said in a statement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is currently working to modernize its aging military equipment, with several military aircraft involved in air crashes in recent years.

One of these led to the death in December 2021 of the former Army Chief of Staff, Bipin Rawat, who was among the 13 victims of the downing of a Russian-made Mi-17 helicopter that took him to an airbase.

“routine task”

The two planes that crashed on Saturday took off early in the morning from the Gwalior base, in Madhya Pradesh state, for a “routine operational flight training mission”, the IAF said.

One fell in the Pahadgarh forest, in the center of the state, about 300 km south of New Delhi.

“Two pilots were found near the crash site and later evacuated by IAF helicopter for treatment,” Ashutosh Bagri, a district police official, told AFP Morena, stating that their lives were not in danger.

The second plane crashed further in Rajasthan state and is being inspected by soldiers, according to pictures from local rescue teams.

In October, five soldiers died after their helicopter crashed in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, near the military and disputed border with China.

It was the second helicopter crash in October in this state. A few weeks earlier, another helicopter crashed near the town of Tawang, killing the pilot.