NEW DELHI, July 7 (AFP) – 08:40 GMT – An Indian Air Force MiG-23 fighter went down Monday after the pilot was forced to eject in mid-air due to a technical snag in the northern state of Punjab, an air force spokesman said.
The pilot was safe, he said.
The Russian-made aircraft was returning from a sortie when a technical problem was noticed in its undercarriage near Punjab’s Ludhiana district.
“It was a planned ejection in a designated safe area. It cannot be termed as a crash,” the spokesman said.
The Indian Air Force, the world’s fourth largest, has been plagued by mishaps mostly involving its ageing fleet of Russian-made MiGs.
Official figures show at least 221 MiGs, worth tens of millions of dollars, were lost in crashes between 1991 and 2000, killing about 100 pilots.
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July 7, 2003 at 10:09 pm