MiG-21 crashes in Shobhasar village near Rajasthan's Bikaner; pilot ejects safely

A MiG-21 fighter plane crashed in Shobhasar village near Rajasthan’s Bikaner on Friday. The Superintendent of Police, Bikaner Pradeep Mohan Sharma was quoted by PTI as saying that one pilot ejected safely. Sharma further said the MiG aircraft crashed in Shobhasar ki Dhani, 12 kilometres from Bikaner city. He said police teams have rushed to the spot to cordon off the area. No loss of life has been reported. The MiG-21 was said to have been on a routine mission when it took off from Nal near Bikaner. A court of inquiry (CoI) will investigate the cause of the accident.

Visuals: MiG-21 aircraft on a routine mission crashed today after getting airborne from Nal near Bikaner. The pilot of the aircraft ejected safely. Court of inquiry will investigate the cause of the accident. #Rajasthan pic.twitter.com/2HnWciPEB8

— ANI (@ANI) March 8, 2019

On Twitter, the defence ministry spokesperson said that initial inputs have suggested the crash took place because of a bird hit. This comes over a week after India lost a MiG-21 after the Pakistan Air Force shot it down during a dogfight. One of the MiG-21 fighters, flown by Indian Air Force wing commander Abhinandan Varthaman, was shot down during the 27 February dogfight while it was chasing the Pakistani jets and he landed in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) where he was taken into captivity. He was handed over to India two days later on 1 March. On Monday, Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa sought to downplay questions over the use of MiG-21 Bison fighters to take on F-16 jets of the Pakistan Air Force during the aerial combat. “The Mig-21 Bison is a capable aircraft. It has been upgraded,” Dhanoa said at a press conference. With inputs from agencies