The IAF personnel at Ojhar Air Force station have rushed to the site, police said

A top official involved with the aircraft production, told PTI that the Sukhoi which crashed today, was the first of the batch produced at the Aircraft Manufacturing Division at HAL Nashik this year.

"Normally around 12 aircraft for a new squadron are manufactured and each aircraft, worth over Rs 300 crore, has a manufacturing cycle of around 3 years," the official said.

"This particular aircraft had completed several flights and was about to be inducted into the IAF," he said.

Before induction, such aircraft are flown by either HAL pilots or IAF pilots under deputation with HAL, he said.

Asked about villagers seeing three parachutes in the sky after the sky, the official the illusion of the third parachute may be due to the canopy opening first before both the pilots ejected to safety.

Season of Aircraft Crashes 

On June 8, Indian Air Force's 'Jaguar' developed a snag while landing and had a minor accident. The pilot was on a routine training mission from the Jamnagar Air Force base.

On June 5, Air Commodore Sanjay Chauhan passed away after his plane went down in the Mundra Taluk of the Kutch region in northwestern Gujarat. This was the second alarming incident in the month of June 2018 with an Indian Air Force Jaguar.

Slew of Crashes 

Before these two successive Jaguar crashes, an IAF Cheetah helicopter crash landed at Natha Top in Jammu and Kashmir on May 23. The helicopter, too, was on a routine sortie and a court of inquiry was ordered.

On March 20 this year, an Advanced Hawk Jet (AJT) trainer, crashed on the Subarnarekha River bed along Jharkhand and Odisha's border.