On Sept. 6, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced that a Russian Air Force MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter crashed 27 kilometers from Chita, in Siberia.
The body of the pilots was found by a rescue team whereas a commission was detached to the scene to investigate the cause of crash.
Although no further details about the crash have been released, as a consequence of the mishap, all MiG-29s have been temporarily grounded: a heck of a safety measure, considered that the 270 Fulcrum jet fighters fly with the Russian Air Force and 40 serve in the Navy.
Fleetwide groundings are usually imposed after preliminary analysis of the incident highlighted failures, malfunctions that could lead to similar mishaps. Russian officials have been quite fast.
MiG-29s played a major role during the recent 100th anniversary of the Russian Air Force airshow.
Image credit: The Aviationist’s Tony Lovelock
Related Articles
- Show of force: 100th anniversary of the Russian Air Force mass flypast of 21 combat planes (theaviationist.com)
- Impressive video: Syria flexes muscles with live firing exercise including Mig-29s, Mig-23s, Mig-21s, Su-24s and gunship helicopters (theaviationist.com)
- Insane flybys and crazy urban dogfights between F-15 and Mig-29 fighter jets: the South Korea’s version of “Top Gun” (theaviationist.com)
