By IANS,
Ahmedabad/New Delhi : A MiG-29 fighter jet of the Indian Air Force (IAF) Monday crashed into the Arabian Sea off Gujarat during a training sortie, but the pilot ejected and was safe, an official said.
The MiG-29, from the 28 Squadron of IAF, had taken off from the Jamnagar air base.
“The aircraft crashed nearly 50 km west of Jamnagar at about 11.50 a.m. It was on a routine training mission,” the official said. The pilot ejected safely.
An inquiry has been ordered into the accident. The Indian Navy’s divers from INS Valsura were deployed to take out the flight data recorder from the sea, the official added.
The IAF has suffered six crashes this year. And this is the fifth MiG-29 crash since 2006.
The earlier five crashes involved an MiG-27, two MiG-21s, an Advanced Jet Trainer Hawk and a Kiran trainer. A pilot was killed in one of them.