New Delhi: A trainer aircraft of the Indian Navy’s MiG-29K crashed during a routine sortie off Goa coast today after developing a technical malfunction. The pilot ejected safely and was rescued in a swift search and resue operation.
A board of inquiry (BoI) has been ordered to investigate the cause of the crash – fourth involving the navy MiG-29K since 2019. The crash happened while the aircraft was returning to its base. ‘Today morning at around 1030h a MiG-29K aircraft on a routine training sortie crashed off Goa. The pilot of the aircraft ejected safely and has been recovered’, a Navy spokesperson said in a statement.
India had contracted 45 MiG-29K carrier based fighters from Russia in two batches, 16 fighters in 2004 along with the contract for acquiring aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya and another 29 fighters in 2010. In fact, India was the first launch customer of the carrier variant of MiG-29 even before the Russian Navy. The MiG-29K fleet saw two more accidents, one in January 2018 and another in November last year. In both cases, the pilots ejected safely. The MiG-29Ks based in Goa currently fly off the deck of INS Vikramaditya and will in near future from the indigenous carrier Vikrant.
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