NEW DELHI: At least three people on the ground died after a Russian-made 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. Two people have died. Three people have been injured,” police officer Sudhir Chaudhary told AFP after the crash in the western state of Rajasthan.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) confirmed the crash and that the pilot ejected.
“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.”
A MiG-21 aircraft of the IAF crashed near Suratgarh during a routine training sortie today morning. The pilot ejected safely, sustaining minor injuries.
An inquiry has been constituted to ascertain the cause of the accident.— Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) May 8, 2023
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 disputed Jammu and Kashmir region.
Two IAF 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.
It was the second military chopper crash in the state that month, coming weeks after a Cheetah helicopter came down near the town of Tawang, killing its pilot.
India’s defense chief, Gen. Bipin Rawat, was among 13 people killed when his Russian-made Mi-17 helicopter crashed while transporting him to an air force base in December 2021.
India is investing billions of dollars in modernising its military, an initiative motivated by its decades-old rivalry with Pakistan and increased tensions with China.
It has also sought to diversify away from Russia, with its air force buying dozens of French Rafale fighter jets, with deliveries starting in 2020.
New Delhi is also investing heavily in developing its own defense industry.
India opened its largest helicopter manufacturing plant in February, months after it unveiled its first locally made aircraft carrier and test-fired a ballistic missile from its maiden domestic nuclear-powered submarine.
At the same time, it has been trying to sell more of its domestically produced hardware to other countries, particularly poorer nations unable to afford more expensive Western-made kit.
