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MiG-21 of Indian Air Force Crashes, Pilot Escapes
A MiG-21 aircraft crashed at a Power Grid sub-station in Sonitpur district of northeast India's Assam state on Tuesday, but the pilot bailed out to safety, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft, which was on a routine flight, crashed at the sub-station at Kandurabari near Tezpur, the PTI quoted local police as saying, adding that the pilot only received minor injuries.
There was no report of any loss of life or injuries on the ground, but the sub-station suffered losses of about 5 million rupees (nearly 100,000 U.S. dollars), official sources told the PTI.
Meanwhile, Indian External Affairs and Defense Minister Jaswant Singh on Tuesday rejected Russian charges that the frequent mishaps of IAF's MiG series fighter planes were due to procurement of defective spares from Ukraine, the PTI reported in a separate story.
"This is factually incorrect," Singh was quoted as saying during a short discussion on national security in Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament, on Tuesday. Ninety percent of the MiG spares were being manufactured in the country in various ordnance factories, the minister added.
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