Indian Air Force MiG-29 crashes in Rajasthan’s Barmer, pilot ejects safely

An Indian Air Force MiG-29. (File photo)

New Delhi: An Indian Air Force MiG-29 fighter jet crashed during a night-training sortie, on Monday. In a statement, the IAF said the warplane was on a routine training sortie in Rajasthan’s Barmer sector when it developed a technical snag, which forced the pilot to eject.

The statement further said the pilot ejected safely and there was no loss of life or property on the ground. The service has initiated a court of inquiry to get to the root cause of the accident.

The Barmer district’s superintendent of police, Narendra Meena, told reporters that the incident took place at about 9.50pm in a village about 10 to 15 kilometres from the Uttarlai Air Force Station, from where the aircraft took off, adding that the aircraft was still on fire.

Meena also said the place where the aircraft crashed has no road access making it difficult for fire trucks to reach the accident site.

This amateur video shared on social media shows the burning Indian Air Force #MiG29, which crashed in Rajasthan’s Barmer district on Monday night. According to @IAF_MCC, the pilot ejected safely. Local authorities said there was no loss of life or property on ground.#MiG29Crash pic.twitter.com/11iCK0ppSX
— India Sentinels (@indiasentinels) September 2, 2024

The IAF officially inducted the twin-engine MiG-29 fighters (Nato reporting name “Fulcrum”) in 1987. In the initial order of 44 of these aircraft, which the IAF placed in 1984, 40 were single-seat MiG-29 9.12Bs and four were twin-seat MiG-29UBs. In 1989, an additional 26 of these warplanes were ordered. Later, in 1994, the IAF bought 10 more advanced MiG-29 9.13s.

According to publicly available records, Monday’s crash was the 12th accident involving an Indian Air Force MiG-29. Details of other IAF MiG-29 crashes, as available in public domain, are:

*Crash near Jalandhar, Punjab, in December 1994.
*Crash in Lahaul-Spiti district, Himachal Pradesh, in August 2001.
*Crash near Jamnagar, Gujarat, in June 2008.
*Crash in Lahaul-Spiti district, Himachal Pradesh, again in October 2011.
*Crash near Jamnagar, Gujarat, again in June 2012.
*Crash for a third time in Jamnagar, Gujarat, in March 2015.
*Crash in Hoshiarpur district, Punjab, in November 2019.
*Crash in Hoshiarpur district, Punjab, again in May 2020.
*Crash for a third time in Hoshiarpur district, Punjab, in November 2020.
*Crash near Jalandhar, Punjab, again in August 2021.
*Crash for a third time near Jalandhar, Punjab, in December 2021.