The Hindu : Front Page : MiG-27 crashes, 7 injured

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 16, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Front Page

Front Page

MiG-27 crashes, 7 injured

— Photo: Rajasthan Patrika

The wreckage of a MiG-27 aircraft, which crashed at Konkani near Jodhpur on Friday. The pilot bailed out, but seven villagers were injured.

Jodhpur: A MiG-27 fighter aircraft crashed in a village near here on Friday, injuring six labourers and a child on the ground.

The pilot, Squadron Leader P. Dhawan, ejected safely just before the aircraft crashed around 8.10 a.m. at Konkani in Luni, about 40 km from here, Defence PRO Lt. Col. N.N. Joshi said.

The aircraft crashed into a house being constructed on a field in Salawas village. The plane, on a routine training sortie, crashed soon after taking off from the Jodhpur airbase, an IAF spokesperson said in New Delhi. The IAF ordered a probe.

Jodhpur SP (Rural) Sharat Kaviraj said seven persons, including a two-year-old child, were injured in the incident.

This is the second IAF fighter aircraft crash in as many weeks, the previous one being that of a sophisticated Su-30MKI air superiority fighter near Jaisalmer on April 30.

This year alone, the IAF has lost four aircraft, the first being a Surya Kiran Aerobatics Team’s Kiran-MkII in Bidar on January 21, followed by an unmanned aerial vehicle crash the same day in Hashimara. The last MiG-27 crash was in Hashimara on January 31 last year. India began licensed production of this fighter from Russia in the early 1980s and has about 180 of these aircraft in nine squadrons in its inventory.

A dedicated ground attack fighter, the MiG-27s were first produced in the country beginning 1996 and in 1998, one of its variants named ‘Bahadur’ (Valiant) was produced in the country.

However, these type of fighters have had a poor flight safety record with MiG-27s contributing to about 10 per cent of IAF crashes between 1996 and 2001, IAF sources said. — PTI

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page