The Hindu : International : Sri Lankan Air Force plane crashes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 10, 2004

International

International

Sri Lankan Air Force plane crashes

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO: A MIG-27 ground attack aircraft of the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) crashed into a lagoon off the island's west coast on Wednesday. There were no casualties as the pilot had ejected before the aircraft plunged into the lagoon off Negombo, a coastal town near the island's main airbase in Katunayake, 32 km north of Colombo. The MIG-27 was on a `training sortie'. According to the SLAF, the pilot reported "an engine vibration and requested to return to the base.'' On his way back to the Katunayake airfield, the pilot "lost control'' and the aircraft crashed at 8.50 a.m. local time. The SLAF has so far lost three of the five MIG-27s that were imported from Ukraine a few years ago, including one during a pre-dawn attack by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on the Katunayake Air Base on July 24, 2001.

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