2 Navy personnel killed as glider crashes in Kochi

The power glider took off from INS Garuda, a Naval air station here, and crashed near Thoppumpady bridge close to the naval base at around 7 a.m. Both the crew members of the glider -- officer Lt Rajeev Jha (39) and Petty Officer Sunil Kumar(29) -- were pulled out from the wreckage and rushed to the Naval hospital INHS Sanjivani.

A Navy glider on a routine training sortie crashed here on Sunday, killing two crew members, a Defence spokesperson said. The power glider took off from INS Garuda, a Naval air station here, and crashed near Thoppumpady bridge close to the naval base at around 7 a.m.

Both the crew members of the glider -- officer Lt Rajeev Jha (39) and Petty Officer Sunil Kumar(29) -- were pulled out from the wreckage and rushed to the Naval hospital INHS Sanjivani. However, they were declared brought dead, the spokesperson said.

A board of inquiry has been ordered by the Southern Naval Command into the incident, he said. According to the spokesperson, Kumar was an experienced glider pilot. Lt Jha, father of two children,hailed from Dehradun in Uttarakhand. Kumar, unmarried, belonged to Bhoj in Bihar.