Indian Air Force Makes History, Lands Sukhoi Fighter Jet On A National Highway

This is the first time that a Sukhoi Su-30 MKI fighter jet, the crown jewel of the Indian Air Force (IAF), landed at a national highway in India. The feat was achieved at the national highway in Jalore, Rajasthan on Thursday, September 9.

Not just a Sukhoi fighter jet, the IAF even landed a C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft at the Emergency Landing Field at Jalore. The transport aircraft had Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and Minister of Road Transport Minister, alongside Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria as passengers.

Union Ministers Rajnath Singha and Nitin Gadkari inaugurated the emergency facility on the National Highway (NH) 925A, falling on the Satta-Gandhav stretch in Barmer in Rajasthan and were audience to number of IAF operations that occurred on the emergency facility.

A 3 kilometre stretch of the Satta-Gandhav section on NH925 has been developed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), for the IAF to use as an emergency facility.

A similar mock drill was conducted by the IAF in October 2017. Various IAF planes performed mock landings on an emergency landing stretch on the Lucknow-Agra Expressway. The exercise was undertaken by the IAF to evaluate the viability of national and state highways and expressways as emergency landing facilities.