Court of enquiry to look into MiG crash

A court of enquiry will evaluate the damage following a MiG-27 crash in Alipurdwar of West Bengal, officials said here on Saturday.

The aircraft, which took off around 10.20 p.m. from Hasimara base, crashed around 10.30 p.m.

While initially two civilians were feared to be dead, it was later clarified that there were no casualties.

The pilot ejected safely from the aircraft.

"There is some damage to a shed in that area but nothing major happened," an IAF spokesperson told IANS.

"In any case the court of enquiry will go into aspects of damage on ground and compensation thereof," he said.

India operates various variants of Soviet-era MiG-21, MiG-27 and MiG-29 aircraft. The Indian Navy has recently inducted the MiG-29K series of fighters.

As per a reply in parliament by then defence minister A.K. Anotony, till April 2012 India had lost 482 MiG aircraft in crashes, killing 171 pilots and 39 civilians.

In 2013-14, two MiG-29s and MiG-21s each had crashed.

While one crashed in Jammu and Kashmir in 2014, while another MiG 21 crashed near Jamnagar in Gujarat in January.