MiG-27 crashes, ninth IAF mishap in '09

New Delhi:: It's turning out to be one of the worst years for IAF in terms of aircraft crashes in recent times. In the ninth mishap this year, a MiG-27 `medium strike' fighter jet went down near New Jalpaiguri, about 16 km west of the Hashimara airbase in West Bengal, on Friday afternoon.
The pilot, Flight Lieutenant Gautam, fortunately, managed to eject safely before the jet crashed in a tea garden at about 1.10 pm. "He was on a routine training sortie when the mishap took place. A court of inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the reason for the crash," said an official.
This is the second `swing wing' MiG-27 to crash this year. Incidentally, the over 100 MiG-27MLs in IAF combat fleet were hardly flown in 2005-2006 after it was found that their R-29 engines were causing a large number of accidents.
With the MiG-27 fleet undergoing an upgrade since then, IAF actually plans to operate these fighters well into the next decade, even though they are ageing, because they constitute an important element of its strike fleet.
24/10/09 Times of India

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Categories: Safety Oct 2009