New Delhi, February 24, 2020 (PPI-OT):After the phasing out of MiG-21 from Indian Air Force for being known as flying coffins because of frequent crashes, now it is the turn of MiG-29 to meet the similar fate. In the latest such incident, a MiG-29K fighter jet crashed near Goa on Sunday morning. The crashed fighter plane belonged to the Indian Navy.
“Today morning at around 1030h a MiG-29K aircraft on a routine training sortie crashed off Goa. The pilot of the aircraft ejected safely and has been recovered,” a Navy spokesperson said in a statement. An enquiry to investigate the incident had been ordered, he added.
India had contracted 45 MiG-29K carrier based fighters from Russia in two batches, 16 fighters in 2004 along with the contract for acquiring aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya and another 29 fighters in 2010. Interestingly, no year passed since January 2018 when India did not lose a MiG-29K. According to the reported crashes, the MiG-29K fleet saw one accident in January 2018, another in November 2019, and now on 23 February 2020.
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