An Indian Air Force IL-76 medium-haul transport aircraft will leave New Delhi for Chengdu with 36 tons of tents and blankets as the first part of its pledged five-million dollar humanitarian assistance for relief activities in its Sichuan province devastated by a temblor, which claimed nearly 15,000 lives.
A potential mid-air disaster was averted on Tuesday when an Air India Airbus, on a flight from Dibrugarh to Kolkata with 43 passengers on board, and an Indian Air Force plane came dangerously close to each other over Jorhat airspace, a day after a civilian plane narrowly missed colliding with the President's helicopter in Mumbai. The Air India flight -- IC-206 -- came dangerously close to an IAF plane when it was traveling from Dibrugarh to Kolkata at around 1.30 pm.
The aircraft C-130J landed in new Delhi with 55 Indian evacuees at around 10.45 pm.
Pakistani authorities have conveyed to New Delhi that there was no substantial evidence that could prove the involvement of Maulana Azhar in the Pathankot assault".
The minister handed over to Sichuan Province Vice Governor Huang Xiaoxiang the supplies brought by an Indian Air Force aircraft to Chengdu as part of the $5 million aid announced by India. Huang said the provincial government and the people were grateful to India for offering help during difficult times, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
An Indian Air Force fighter pilot on a training sortie was killed when a Surya Kiran trainer aircraft crashed near Bidar in Karnataka on Wednesday morning. The pilot, who had joined the Surya Kiran Aerobatics team recently, was on the Kiran Mk II trainer aircraft, when the mishap occurred at 8.45 hours, IAF sources said.
A Court of Inquiry into the incident has been ordered.
A squadron leader and a flight liuetanant, injured in the crash, have been rushed to the army hospital, the sources said.
Four veterans of the Indian National Army, an all-women contingent of the 183-year-old Assam Rifles marching down Rajpath and an Indian Air Force aircraft flying using a mix of traditional and biofuel.
The radar blip on the flight path of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's special plane, which created a mid-air scare, was caused by an Indian Air Force aircraft and the incident cannot be considered a serious security lapse, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said. "Primary investigation has revealed that there was some mix-up in the signals," he said. The special aircraft carrying Prime MinisterManmohan Singh had the mid-air scare on Tuesday evening.
The Dornier plane was in "no way on the flight path of the PM's aircraft," sources in the Airports Authority of India said quoting preliminitary investigations into the incident. The blip on the radar was detected by the Air Traffic Control.
The World Court had, on Wednesday, ordered Pakistan not to execute Kulbhushan Jadhav and had directed "effective review and reconsideration" of his conviction and death sentence by a military court.
Here's a recap of events that occurred in India in the past 24 hours.
For both India and China, the most likely option -- and the most challenging -- appears to be a freezing of the status quo.
In a major embarrassment to the Army, three of its officers, including a Lieutenant Colonel, now deputed on the United Nations Peace Mission in Congo, have been accused of raping a woman in South Africa while they were holidaying there, an allegation that has prompted the defence ministry to order a probe."We have ordered an enquiry into the incident," Defence Minister A K Antony said on the sidelines of an Indian Air Force function on Tuesday.
Co-pilot Squadron Leader Priye Sharma (32) died when the Dhruv advanced light helicopter crashed near a runway.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who arrived in New Delhi on Friday, on a three-day visit, cut short his trip and returned home tonight by an Indian Air Force plane because of death of his mother-in-law.
Continuing its aid to cyclone-affected Myanmar and quake-hit China, India will fly out three aircraft with relief materials to the two neighbouring countries this week. An Indian Air Force's heavylift fixed wing IL-76 aircraft will leave for Yangon on Wednesday. This will be the sixth IL-76 flight to Myanmar.Till date, the IAF has flown over 15 mercy missions and carried over 300 tonnes of medicines, tents, water, wheelchairs, portable houses and other relief material.
On Feb 7, 1968, the IAF's AN-12 aircraft had gone missing.
An IAF helicopter located the wreckage but the fate of the pilot, Squadron Leader V Sinha, was not known.
Union ministries are in the midst of a row because of uncleared IAF bills, which were incurred when Pakistan's ex-minister Jadoon had used an IAF plane, during his visit to India.
Hailing from the Nilambur royal family, Muraleedharan was just 21 when his aircraft was gunned down while flying over Peshawar
In the first mishap of an Indian Air Force aircraft this year, a MIG-27 ground attack fighter crashed near Hashimara air base in North Bengal on Thursday, but the pilot managed to eject out safely. There was no report of any casualty or damage on the ground. The Air Force has instituted a Court of Inquiry to find out the causes of the crash. The aircraft got air borne at 12:30 pm for a routine training mission and crashed 10.2 kms east of the base at 12:40 pm.
The incident is said to have occurred in the wee hours when a huge mound of earth fell on the 'row houses' and two children and five women were among the deceased, most of whom were plantation workers from neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
Residents of this hamlet have been thronging the house of 24-year-old Airman Pritam Chand since the day the IAF aircraft went missing.
An army soldier was also injured in the encounter.
India successfully tested the advanced version of Lakhsya, the indigenously built Pilotless Target Aircraft from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur-on-sea, about 15 km from Balasore, for the third consecutive day on Wednesday.
The pilot was identified as Mukhopadhya, police added.
Senior IAF officers from the IAF Adampur base rushed to the spot of the accident. The MiG which was on routine flight from Adampur developed a technical snag soon after take off.
The pilots, identified as Squadron Leader S Basu and Flight Lieutenant A Sharma, are missing.
The exercise provides an opportunity to practice freefall techniques with the highly-experienced Russian diving team.
While refraining from naming any one of them, he said, "I will disclose their names once the investigation is complete," he said.
At present, Pakistan has some edge with its fleet of F-16 jets with AMRAAM missile fitted with them, said an official.
New Delhi must clearly demonstrate to Beijing that China will pay a price for its relentless strategic undermining of India, says Ajai Shukla.
For Chandan, Thursday is going to be a day he will never forget. On the occasion of his 14th birthday, he got a gift of a lifetime when he became an Indian Air Force fighter pilot for a day.
An Indian Air Force special rescue team on Thursday rescued Canadian diplomat, Andrew Norfolk, his injured wife and their three children trapped in snow in Dhauladhar ranges, north of Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, since Wednesday.
'He is psychologically preparing the PLA and the Chinese public to avoid a loss of face.'
The trainer, who is from the IAF's Testing Pilot School, was on a routine training sortie when the crash happened in Rajarajeshwarinagar area.
'We should have seen these signals and reacted earlier.' 'We miss out on a certain strategic advantage by arriving late on the scene.'
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