Two Indian Air Force pilots were killed Friday when their French-built Mirage 2000 aircraft crashed minutes after take-off. The single-engine jet fighter aircraft manufactured by Dassault Aviation was on a test flight after an upgrade carried out by India's Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). "Both occupants sustained fatal injuries... Investigation into the cause of accident is being ordered," the defence ministry said in a statement.

Local media reports said the pilots tried to eject but were caught in flames as the plane exploded at the HAL airport in the southern city of Bangalore. No one was hurt on the ground. India had signed a $2.4 billion deal with France in 2011 to upgrade 51 Mirage 2000 fighters, which were purchased in the mid-1980s, with new electronic warfare systems and radar.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019