NEW DELHI: Three people on the ground died in India on Monday when a Russian-made MiG-21 military aircraft suffered an “onboard emergency” and obliterated a house, authorities said.
India´s air force has seen a string of crashes in recent years, many of them linked to decades-old planes supplied by the former Soviet Union.
The MiG fighter jet crashed onto the house in the western state of Rajasthan and three villagers died, police officer Sudhir Chaudhary told AFP. The Indian Air Force (IAF) said that the pilot ejected safely and the accident happened shortly after take-off in a routine training sortie.
The pilot “experienced an onboard emergency, following which he attempted to recover the aircraft as per existing procedures,” an IAF statement said. “Having failed to do so, he initiated an ejection, sustaining minor injuries in the process,” it said.