IAF pilot dies after sortie

A young Indian Air Force pilot died of a massive heart attack soon after landing a fighter jet aircraft at the Air Force station in Bidar, Karnataka, on Wednesday.

Officials at the air station said the 34-year-old Squadron Leader Vikas Sharma died soon after landing the aircraft, which he flew on a training sortie along with a trainee pilot.

''He collapsed even as he was trying to climb down the ladder after parking the fighter aircraft on the tarmac and died,'' an IAF official said.

The Air station officials made preparations to send the body to Madhya Pradesh from where Sharma hailed.