The aircraft, which took off from the Bareilly airbase, was participating in a periodic firepower demonstration.

"The aircraft crashed during an ongoing exercise. Both the pilot and the co-pilot are safe," he said adding that a statutory court of inquiry has been instituted.

This was the second crash of the Sukhoi combat jet since its induction 12 years ago. In April, a Sukhoi had crashed in the same region due to the failure of its sophisticated fly-by-wire system. Both the pilots had managed to bail out in time but one of them was killed after being apparently hit by the falling debris of the aircraft.

The Su-30 was inducted in 1996 and the IAF fleet currently has more than 105 such aircraft. IAF has already ordered 230 of SU 30MKIs, and and at least 50 more are being ordered from Russia in a third lot in direct purchase as the production in India under Transfer of Technology is not enough to make up for the falling number of IAf's older aircraft, mainly various Mig jets of Soviet vintage.

Of the Su-30s in the IAF fleet, about 50 were bought in flyaway condition in the first lot from its Russian manufacturer while the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was ordered to manufacture 140 under licence. A second order for 40 aircraft was also placed on Russia. It was not clear if the jet involved in today's mishap was made in Russia or India.

The Su-30 has won universal acclaim from the air forces of the US, Britain and France whenever it has been fielded against them in war games. Eight Su-30s had participated in the prestigious Red Flag exercise with the US Air Force at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, in 2008 and had more than held their own against their counterparts' F/A-18, F-16 and Rafale combat jets.

While on way back, the IAF Sukhois also did an exercise with the F 16 jets of the UAE Air Force in Abu Dhabi.

Indian President Pratibha Patil became the first woman to fly in a Sukhoi recently.