Russian Mig-29 Fulcrum crashes in Siberia, Moscow grounds them all.

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

About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.