Shimla/New Delhi, July 18 (UNI) A MIG -21 fighter jet of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed on Wednesday in Patta Jatian village at Jawali area of Kangra district in Himachal Pradesh.
"On Wednesday afternoon a MiG-21 aircraft, which was on a routine sortie, crashed at 1321 hrs in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh," the IAF said.
The aircraft had got airborne from Air Force Station Pathankot at 1220 hrs.
"The pilot sustained fatal injuries during the accident," it added.
A Court of Inquiry (CoI) has been ordered to establish the cause of the accident.

Kangra SP Santosh Patial said the pilot, identified as Squadron leader Meet Kumar, had died in the accident.
Soon after the crash, air force choppers landed on the spot and started investigation.
Last month, two such crashes were reported in Gujarat and Maharashtra.
In Gujarat, a Jaguar fighter aircraft crashed in Kutch district, soon after it took off from the Jamnagar air base on June 5, killing a senior officer, who was on a routine sortie.
Air Commodore Sanjai Chauhan, the Air Officer Commanding of Air Force Station Jamnagar, who was flying the deep penetration Jaguar fighter jet, died when the plane crashed in a field at Bareja village.
"The Jaguar aircraft on a routine training mission from Jamnagar crashed at around 1030 hrs," Defence Spokesperson Lt Col Manish Ojha had said.
In second incident, a Sukhoi-30 jet on a test flight crashed in Maharashtra's Nashik district on June 27. In that incident, however, both the pilots were able to eject safely.
The under-production Sukhoi Su-30MKI twinjet multirole air superiority fighter of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) crashed around 25 km from Nashik, shortly after taking off from the HAL airstrip near the city, police said.
UNI ML/ASH RJ