GUWAHATI/NAGPUR/GURGAON: Squadron Leader Anuj Vashishth and Flight Lieutenant Purvesh Duragkar, who was part of Operation Sindoor last year, were killed on Thursday evening when their Su-30MKI crashed in Assam’s hilly Karbi Anglong district shortly after going off the radar during a training sortie, IAF confirmed on Friday after locating the wreckage. The Sukhoi jet had taken off from the WWII-era Jorhat airbase, 200km from Karbi Anglong, around 6.45pm and lost contact with ground control at 7.42 pm. Vashishth, 29, whose family lives in Gurugram’s Sector 22B, was to get married soon. Duragkar, 25, had just returned to his squadron after visiting his parents in Nagpur around 10 days ago. His father Ravindra received news of the crashed jet being traced from a relative before the IAF unit’s commanding officer called to confirm his pilot son’s death.

‘Sqn Ldr Vashishth was introvert but passionate about flying’Karbi Anglong DC Aranyak Saikia told TOI the jet crashed “into a remote, uninhabited hill” near Rongkhelan village under Nilip block, north of district headquarters town Diphu. The crash site is a three-hour trek from the nearest road head at Chowkihola, which takes two and a half hours by road to reach from Diphu. Residents of nearby villages reported hearing a loud explosion as the jet, engulfed in flames, hurtled down the hillside. The debris was scattered across a large area. “IAF acknowledges the loss of Sqn Ldr Anuj and Flt Lt Purvesh Duragkar, who sustained fatal injuries in the Su-30 crash. All personnel of the IAF express sincere condolences and stand firmly with the bereaved families in this time of grief,” IAF posted on X. Defence minister Rajnath Singh and Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma condoled the deaths. “Their courage and service to the nation will always be remembered with pride and gratitude,” Singh said.It was the second fatal Su-30MKI crash in the Northeast in eight years. On May 23, 2017, Sqn Ldr D Pankaj and Flt Lt S Achudev took off from Tezpur’s Salonibari air base on a routine training mission and lost radar and radio contact near Arunachal Pradesh’s Doulasang, close to the China border. Their bodies were found eight days after the crash.Of the 13 Su-30MKI crashes in India since the jet’s induction into IAF’s fleet in 2002, four have been in the northeast. IAF maintains three Su-30MKI bases in the region – Salonibari (Tezpur), Chabua (Dibrugarh) and Jorhat – housing four squadrons between them, all within 150 to 250 km of the China frontier.Flt Lt Duragkar’s father said his son joined IAF four years ago, hardly expecting to be part of a historic moment like Op Sindoor so early in his career. “He would say, ‘Hamari air force chahti toh Pakistan ka naam-o-nishan mita deti (Our air force could have wiped out the enemy if it wanted to)’. My son died for the country. I wish he lived longer to serve IAF and the nation.”The last time they met, the entire family was together. Flt Lt Duragkar’s sister Sayali, who lives in the US, had come down to Nagpur for the reunion.IAF hasn’t officially cited Flt Lt Duragkar’s participation in Op Sindoor in accordance with norms for operations involving national security, defence officials said.Sqn Ldr Vashishth’s father Anand Kumar Vashishth left for Assam Friday to bring home his son one last time. The pilot’s younger brother Manuj, based in the UK, is expected in time for Saturday’s funeral at the family’s native village of Kakrana in Haryana’s Rohtak.A relative of the Sqn Ldr Vashishth said he joined IAF about a decade ago, inspired by his father, who had served as a subedar in the Army. “He was passionate about flying, somewhat introverted, and a wonderful officer,” a colleague told TOI.