New Delhi, Sep 16 (Inditop.com) The Indian Air Force (IAF) was Wednesday probing the “technological malfunction” that led to a Mirage-2000 fighter jet dropping a bomb in Pokharan, Rajasthan, missing the Indira Gandhi water canal by only 100 metres.
“The court of inquiry is underway and we are probing the technological malfunction in the incident. No loss to civil property has been reported as the area has not been inhabited,” an IAF spokesperson said without divulging more information.
The aircraft had taken off from the Gwalior airbase in Madhya Pradesh Monday evening on a routine training mission and was to drop the bomb at the Chandhan range. It, however, dropped the 100-pound bomb at a spot 12 km from Mohangarh town in Jaisalmer district – full 25 km away from the target.
The bomb explosion resulted in a crack in the Indira Gandhi canal, one of the biggest water canals in the country and the lifeline of people in western Rajasthan. A breach in the canal wall could have flooded the area.
Earlier this year, a resident of Mohangarh village had lodged a complaint with police that an IAF bomb had landed in his field and destroyed his crop.
