A MIG 21 aircraft crashed in the paddy fields of Johlan village on Tuesday morning during a routine sortie. Air Force sources have said the pilot,Wing Commander Sandeep,managed to eject before the crash. The crash took place around 11.25 am,barely a distance from a densely populated area in this small village near Rajkot. A court of inquiry has been ordered into the crash. An IAF spokesperson said: The pilot had flown from the Pathankot airbase for a routine armament training sortie at the range in Halwara when the mishap occurred. The exercise took place at the Sidhwan Khas or the S K Firing range located some 35 kilometres south of Ludhiana. Station House Officer of Rajkot Waryam Sandhu said he was alerted of the impending crash by the driver of an ambulance stationed at the Tajpur crossing,a kilometre or two before Rajkot town. Sandhu said: The driver told me he had spotted a plane flying very low and that it was on fire. The driver feared the aircraft would crash in the town. We immediately informed our seniors and rushed out. Luckily,the pilot ejected right over the town. He might have judged that the plane would not come down on a residential area but fly some distance towards the fields. He added the drivers calculation might have saved many lives. Senior IAF officials and the Senior Superintendent of Police,Jagraon,H S Chahal visited the spot of the crash later in the day. The pilot was whisked away by the IAF to the nearby Halwara base. Farmer Ram Singh,a witness to the crash,said: I was in my field when I heard my neighbour scream at me pointing towards the sky. Before I could react,the plane shot past above our heads. It was on fire and barely 50 feet above. My son and I ran for cover. Singh said the plane crashed into a gas pipeline that is under construction. Farm labour Parkash Kumar said: We saw a ball of fire coming towards us. For the next half hour,the entire field was covered with smoke. After the smoke settled,we checked the aircraft for the pilot but there was no one inside. Meanwhile,it has been alleged that IAF officers tried to stop camera persons from clicking the accident site. Eyewitnesses said they took the camera of one and deleted the photographs and bundled another into an IAF vehicle. Past crashes There have been three crashes in 2010 already. The IAF lost one MIG aircraft on February 16 near Hashimara in West Bengal in which the pilot died. Another MIG 21-77 fighter crashed three days later in Bagdogra. The IAF owns one of the largest MIG 21 fleets in the world. Since its induction in 1960,the IAF is estimated to have lost more than 700 aircraft. One hundred and eighty pilots have died too. As the fleet aged,more than 250 planes crashed between 1991 and 2003. The IAF is learnt to have pumped in huge amounts for the fleets maintenance after it earned the unfortunate sobriquet flying coffins.
