Chandigarh, March 7 (IANS) A Jaguar fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed in Haryana on Friday but the pilot managed to eject safely, officials said. According to the IAF, the Jaguar aircraft crashed at Ambala during a routine training sortie after encountering system malfunction. The pilot maneuvered the aircraft away from any habitation on ground, before ejecting safely. An inquiry has been ordered by the IAF, to ascertain the cause of the accident. A British-French consortium-developed supersonic jet attack aircraft, the SEPECAT Jaguar was conceived in the 1960s and began to be manufactured and enter service in various nations' air forces in the 1970s. India started receiving these fighters at the beginning of the 1980s and they were renamed "Shamsher"..

In service with the UK's Royal Air Force till 2007 and the French Air Force till 2005 before being replaced by the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Dassault Rafale, respectively, it was also used by the air forces of Ecuador, Nigeria, and Oman. Currently, India is the only nation using the vintage fighter, which has also been manufactured and upgraded by the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd to incorporate new avionics, a remodelled cockpit, and modern armaments.

The Indian Air Force is reported to maintain six squadrons of the aircraft, including two based in Ambala. The other four are based in Gorakhpur and Jamnagar. There are three variants of the fighter jet, including the IB, which is used for training, the IS, and the IM. Apart from ground attack, the IAF envisages a maritime strike operation role for the fighters. The aircraft is planned to be phased out from service by the end of the present decade.

/IANS