Three civilians killed as IAF jet crashes onto house
Last updated on: 08 May,2023 12:24 pm
The Indian Air Force (IAF) confirmed the accident and that the pilot ejected
NEW DELHI (AFP) - Three civilians were killed after a MiG-21 military aircraft crashed onto a house in India on Monday, police said.
“Pilot has been rescued safely. The MiG crashed on a house. Three people have died. Three people have been injured,” police officer Sudhir Chaudhary told AFP after the crash in Hanumangarh district of the western state of Rajasthan.
The aircraft had taken off from Suratgarh.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) confirmed the accident and that the pilot ejected. An army helicopter reached the site to pick the pilot.
“A MiG-21 aircraft of the IAF crashed near Suratgarh during a routine training sortie today morning,” the IAF tweeted.
“The pilot ejected safely, sustaining minor injuries. An inquiry has been constituted to ascertain the cause of the accident.”
Past crashes
In July 2022, two pilots were killed when a MiG-21 crashed in a training sortie in Rajasthan. That crash was the sixth MiG-21 aircraft to have gone down since January 2021, with five pilots killed.
Russian-made MiG-21 jets first entered Indian service in the 1960s and for decades served as the backbone of the country’s air force.
Numerous crashes in the past few decades, however, have led to the planes being dubbed “flying coffins” because of their poor safety record.
Last week, an army helicopter with three people on board crashed in occupied Kashmir.
Two Indian Air Force fighter jets crashed in January, killing one pilot and injuring two others, in an apparent mid-air collision while on exercises south of the capital New Delhi.
It involved a Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30 and a French-built Mirage 2000.
Five army soldiers were killed last October when their helicopter crashed in Arunachal Pradesh state, near the country’s militarised and disputed border with China.
India’s defence chief, General Bipin Rawat, was among 13 people killed when Russian-made Mi-17 helicopter crashed in December 2021.