MiG-21 ‘Bison’ crashes in MP, pilot ejects safely

Feb 05, 2011 |

Gwalior (MP)

An IAF MiG-21 ‘Bison’ fighter aircraft on Friday crashed apparently due to an engine problem while on a routine sortie in Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur district but the pilot ejected safely.
The plane went down at 11.25 am near Bela-Bhimlat village, about 150 km south-west of Gwalior airbase after taking off from there, an IAF spokesperson said.
“The plane developed some engine problem. The pilot, Squadron Leader Falguni Laha Roy, managed to eject and landed safely on the ground,” he said.
A rescue helicopter was sent to fetch the pilot, the spokesman said, adding that a court of inquiry has been ordered into the incident.
He said the crash took place in a forest area and there was no damage on the ground.
This is the first crash of a MiG series fighter aircraft this year. In 2010, a total of 10 IAF aircraft crashes took place, including four MiG-27 and two MiG-21 planes.
While two MiG-27 aircraft crashed in Hashimara in West Bengal, two other such war planes went down in Barmer in Rajasthan and Kalaikunda in West Bengal. The MiG-21s crashed in Bagdogra (West Bengal) and Halwara in Punjab.
Besides the fighter planes, the IAF also lost three helicopters last year —- a Mi-17, a Mi-26 and one Chetak.
While in the February 16 Hashimara crash, the pilot had died, in the second crash in Hashimara on July 30, three people were killed on the ground but the pilot had ejected safely. In the Mi-17 crash in Arunachal Pradesh, two pilots and 10 others on board were killed in November last year. One pilot and two crew members were killed in the Chetak crash in Leh on September 11 last year. There were no casualties in the Mi-26 crash in Jammu.
A Cheetah helicopter of the Army Aviation Corps crashed in a residential area in Nashik on February 2 this year, killing both its pilots but there was no casualty on the ground. The MiG-21 “Bison”, which crashed in Madhya Pradesh on Friday, belonged to IAF’s premier Gwalior-based Tactics & Air Combat Development Establishment (TACDE).

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/55680" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-004be1265b43992dfd55e7701f046921" value="form-004be1265b43992dfd55e7701f046921" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80892693" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>