New Delhi: Two IAF Jaguar fighter aircraft today (Apr 2, 2004) went missing in bad weather during training sortie near the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, an IAF (Indian Air Force) officer said.

The fighters have been out of radio contact after getting airborne along with two other Jaguars at 12.34 PM while flying over Gund in Srinagar area, the officer said.

"The four aircraft were on a training valley flying sortie during which they encountered bad weather. While two Jaguars managed to get out of the bad patch and return to the Srinagar air base, two others got stuck in bad weather and lost radio contact with the ground," he said.

A massive search and rescue operation has been launched by the Air Force to trace the missing aircraft and the pilots.

"We are not still using the connotation that the aircraft have been lost," the officer said.

Asked if the warplanes could have crossed the LoC into the Pakistani side, the officer ruled this out, saying the aircraft were flying over Gund, which is some distance away from the LoC.

The officer said the two aircraft were carrying normal fuel to give them "enough endurance" to fly back to their base at Ambala.