Another MiG-21 crashes,pilot safe

It was 8 km short of airfield on its return from Rajpura side when the crash occurred, an Indian Air Force spokesperson said.

The IAF has ordered a Court of Inquiry to ascertain the exact cause of the crash.

The pilot,Flight Lieutenant Arunabh Ghosh,who suffered minor injuries,was admitted to Military Hospital in Ambala Cantonment.

Eyewitnesses said the parachute of the pilot got stuck in electric cables near Surya Group of Institute,nearly 1 km from the crash site and people detached the hanging and unconscious pilot,administered first-aid at the institute before he was flown to Ambala Cantonment in a military helicopter.

I was going to Ambala on motorcycle when I saw the aircraft crashing into the fields. Along with a few other people,I reached the place where the parachute of the pilot had got stuck in electric cables. We detached the hanging and unconscious pilot from the parachute, said Iqbal Singh,a resident of Bapror village,adding the pilot soon regained consciousness.

The pilot was in a semi-conscious state and appeared in a state of shock. A few people caught hold of the pilot and brought him to the institute,where he was administered first-aid. After a few minutes,a helicopter reached the site and picked up the pilot and took him away, said Pavas,an engineering student.

The crash occurred near the busy National Highway-1,and had it fallen on the highway,it would have caused casualties. Also,there were two adjoining villages of Bapror and Rajgarh,near the crash site.

The Black Box of the aircraft was recovered,the Haryana government said in a press release.

Meanwhile,there were rumours doing the rounds that there were two pilots in the aircraft when it crashed. But IAF dismissed it and said it was a single pilot aircraft. It was a single pilot aircraft and not a training aircraft. Only one pilot,Flight Lieutenant Arunabh Ghosh,was in the aircraft and he is safe, an IAF spokesperson at Ambala said.

However,a security guard Raghbir Singh,on duty at a building on the other side of the road,claimed that two chhatris parachutes emerged from the aircraft. I saw sparks in the haphazardly moving aircraft and then saw two parachutes emerging from it, Raghbir said. But he said no one was attached to the other parachute.