As many as three officers have had their contracts with the Indian Air Force (IAF) terminated after being found guilty of accidentally firing a Brahmos missile from an air base on March 9 that landed more than 100 kilometers inside Pakistani territory.

Three officers deviated from the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), which resulted in the missile being accidentally fired, according to a Court of Inquiry (Col) that was established to establish the facts of the matter and determine who was responsible for the occurrence. The 400 km-range Brahmos missile touched down in Pakistan near Mian Channu. There were no casualties despite the fact that it destroyed physical installations.

"These three officers have primarily been held responsible for the incident. Their services have been terminated by the Central Government with immediate effect. Termination orders have been served upon the officers on August 23," said the Air Force.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh had constituted a high-level inquiry on March 15 to probe the unfortunate incident.

It may be noted that both Air Force and Army has Brahmos missiles. While Army has surface-to-surface Brahmos, IAF has the former as well as an air-to-surface missile fired from Su 30 MKI.