Baripada, June 4: A team of defence officials today visited the site near Kudarsahi in Bisoi, where an advanced jet trainer of the Indian Air Force had crashed on Wednesday. They were tight-lipped about the accident.

The four-member team, apart from collecting samples from the site, collected some parts of the aircraft around the burnt fuselage, wings and undercarriages.

Sources said the officials had reportedly retrieved a vital component, the flight data recorder (FDR), which stores recent flight history through automatic recording of parameters, the altitude and other data.

Rairangpur sub-divisional police officer Mohanpani Karua said: "The accident investigating agency from Delhi arrived by a chopper and began their probe on the spot."

The cause of accident is yet to be ascertained. Inspector general of police (eastern range) Aseet Panigrahi said: "The preliminary assessment is that it might have taken place due to a technical snag."

"Soon after the accident, one team, led by Wing Commander Naveen Rana, had visited the site. Today, another expert team arrived and began investigation," he said.

The trainer aircraft, Hawk MK 132, met the mid-air mishap after taking off from its base (Hawk squadron) in Kalaikunda, Medinapur in a routine sortie.

The pilots, Sachin Mahajan and Siddharth, could manage to eject themselves and had suffered injuries. The duo, who had made paralanding about 3km from the crash site, were later airlifted to defence hospital for treatment.