Indian warplane crash kills pilot, girl on ground

An Indian air force plane crashed yesterday killing the pilot and a girl on the ground, an official said, two days after a similar accident involving a Soviet-era MiG-21 fighter aircraft.
The British-designed Jaguar crashed after taking off from an airbase in the northern town of Gorakhpur, 400 miles (650 km) from New Delhi, air force spokesman Amit Mahajan told AFP by telephone.
Debris from the plane killed the girl, Mahajan said.
“Two Jaguars were engaged in a low-altitude training sortie and the one behind saw the other one crashing and it reported the incident,” he said, adding that a probe was on to find out the cause of the crash.
India inducted Jaguars into its air force in 1979 and subsequently built the war jets locally under licence from Britain.
On Tuesday, a MiG-21 fighter jet crashed in the northern state of Rajasthan, killing its pilot.
Ten MiG variants in the Indian air force crashed last year.
India plans to replace its ageing warplanes with 123 new military aircraft as part of a 12-billion-dollar purchasing plan.