The Air Force said in a statement that one of the three pilots died of his injuries.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is currently working to upgrade its aging military equipment after several army planes were involved in aircraft accidents in recent years.
In December 2021, former Indian Army Chief of Staff Bipin Rawat was killed along with 12 others when a Russian-made Mi-17 helicopter, which was carrying him to an army base, crashed.
The Air Force said the two planes that crashed on Saturday took off from Gwalior air base in the state of Madhya Pradesh on a “routine operational flight training mission”.
One of them crashed in the forests of Bahadgarh, in the center of the state, 300km south of New Delhi.
“Two pilots were found near the crash site and later evacuated by an Indian Air Force helicopter,” Morena district police chief Ashutosh Bagri told AFP, noting their lives were not in danger.
The second plane crashed in Rajasthan and was spotted by the military, according to photos by local rescue service personnel.
And in October, five soldiers were killed after their helicopter crashed in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, near the disputed border with China, in the second crash in state helicopter in that month. Weeks earlier, another helicopter had crashed near the city of Tawang, killing the pilot.
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