Lahaul Spiti: An Indian Air Force fighter aircraft, MIG 29, crashed during a night flying exercise in the Lahaul Spiti region of Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday night.
The fighter aircraft was headed to Leh when the mishap took place.
The pilot of the aircraft, who was the only person on board, went missing after the aircraft crashed.
The aircraft lost radio contact at about 8.30 pm on Tuesday night.
Two aircraft of western air command took off from Adampur in Jalandhar
A search for the pilot and the plane fuselage is underway.
Lahaul-Spiti DSP Khajana Ram said that they were informed about the crash at 11 pm on Tuesday night and the rescue teams had reached the area by 3 am. "As it is a high altitude area, we are facing difficulty in locating the wreckage," he said.
The IAF said the second plane returned safely and the exercise was not called off.
This is the seventh air crash involving IAF's fighter aircraft in 2011 and the second in October.
On October 7, a MIG-21 aircraft crashed near Uttarlai airport in Rajasthan's Barmer district, but the pilot ejected safely.
(With Additional Inputs from PTI)
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