Indian Air Force Mirage 2000 crashes
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
New Delhi, March 5, IRNA -- A Mirage 2000 fighter plane of the Indian Air Force (IAF) Monday crashed soon after taking off from an airbase in Gwalior, in a second mishap involving the aircraft type in 11 days.
The pilot managed to eject safely, IAF officials said.
This is the second crash involving a Mirage-2000 aircraft since February 24.
A court of inquiry (CoI) has been ordered to ascertain the reason of the crash.
This is the third crash involving an IAF aircraft this year. A Kiran MK II trainer plane had crashed in Chennai on January 30 and the second crash involving a Mirage-2000 aircraft took place on February 24.
In this financial year, today's mishap is the eighth crash of a fighter aircraft of which most were from the MiG 21 series.
These aircraft started getting inducted into the IAF in the mid-80s and have had a very good flight safety record, the officials said.
The IAF has also recently signed two deals worth over USD 3.2 billion for upgrading the capabilities of the Mirage 2000 with French companies Dassault, Thales and MBDA.
2160**1422
Islamic Republic News Agency/IRNA NewsCode: 80024388
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
