A MiG-21 aircraft of Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed near Moga in Punjab early on Friday. The pilot was killed in the crash, the IAF confirmed in a statement. The IAF aircraft was on a routine training sortie when the accident took place. A senior IAF officer said that the incident took place around 1 a.m. The MiG-21 crashed at Langiana Khurd village of Baghapurana in Moga. This is the third crash of a MiG-21 aircraft in 2021. The cause of the accident and the damages are yet to be known.
A Court of Inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident involving a Bison aircraft of IAF in the western sector, the Indian Air Force said.
“There was an aircraft accident last night involving a Bison aircraft of IAF in the western sector,” the Indian Air Force (IAF) said in a tweet. “The pilot, Sqn Ldr Abhinav Choudhary, sustained fatal injuries. IAF condoles the tragic loss and stands firmly with the bereaved family. A Court of Inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident, it said.
In March, a Group Captain of the IAF was killed in an accident involving a MiG-21 aircraft at an airbase in central India. Group Captain A Gupta was killed in the accident. A court of inquiry was ordered to determine the cause of the accident. In January, a MiG-21 aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed near Suratgarh in Rajasthan. The pilot of the aircraft managed to eject safely from the aircraft.
The MiG-21 is a supersonic jet fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in Russia. The MiG-21 Bison, one of India’s six fighter jets, is of Russian origin. It is a single-engine, single-seater multirole fighter aircraft. It has a maximum speed of 2,230 km/hr and carries one 23 mm twin-barrel cannon with four R-60 close combat missiles. It was inducted into the Indian Air Force in the early 1980s.
It is also known as the “backbone of the Indian Air Force.” It is noteworthy that these planes played a major role in the 1971 Indo-Pak War and are currently being used by the IAF as interceptors.