IAF Sukhoi jet: Keralite among missing pilots

One of the two pilots of Indian Air Force's Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter jet, which went missing in Assam on Tuesday, is a native of Kozhikode, it has emerged. 

Flight Lieutenant Achudev is a native of Pantheerankavu in Kozhikode and is the son of Sahadevan and Jayasree from Vallikunnuparambil. Sahadevan is a retired ISRO employee and the family currently resides in Thiruvananthapuram.

The distressed parents have left for the IAF base in Tezpur after they were informed that their son is missing. The other pilot is a squadron leader from north India. No breakthrough has been made in locating the pilots till now.

Also read: Sukhoi jet goes missing near India-China border

The Sukhoi jet, with two pilots on board, went missing around an hour after taking off from the Tezpur IAF base at 10:30 am on Tuesday. The plane, which was a routine training sortie, lost radar and radio contact around 60 km north of the airbase, IAF said. A massive search operation, involving helicopter recce, was launched to trace the plane and the two pilots.

Meanwhile, the search for the fighter jet was hit by rough weather on Wednesday evening. IAF sources said the operation was continuing despite bad weather conditions in parts of Assam and neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh, where the plane is suspected to have crashed.

At present, two squadrons comprising around 36 aircrafts are deployed at Tezpur for guarding the border with China in Arunachal Pradesh.

(with PTI inputs)