An Indian Air Force Tejas fighter jet crashed Tuesday near a hostel complex in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. The pilot ejected safely before the aircraft went down in flames.
Video footage captured the moment of the pilot ejecting from the jet depicted the fighter aircraft gliding at a low altitude. The jet moved from right to left within the camera frame as the pilot deployed the parachute and descended towards the ground. Subsequently, the unmanned Tejas lost altitude and crashed on the grounds of the student hostel a few meters away. A white parachute was observed descending alongside it.
The cause of the crash is under investigation by a court of inquiry convened by the Air Force. The aircraft was on an operational training sortie when it went down in the Jawahar Colony area, the Air Force said in a statement.
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"One Tejas aircraft of the Indian Air Force met with an accident at Jaisalmer, today during an operational training sortie. The pilot ejected safely. A Court of Inquiry has been constituted to find out the cause of the accident," the Air Force wrote on X.
Local police and administration officials responded to the scene immediately and extinguished the fire caused by the crash.
A large-scale military exercise involving all three branches of the Indian armed forces, named "Bharat Shakti," is currently underway in Pokhran, Rajasthan. It's unclear whether the crashed Tejas was participating in this exercise.