Burning MiG-21 crashes into Rajasthan village home, kills 3 women

JAIPUR: A MiG-21 fighter aircraft of the IAF on a training sortie Monday morning burst into flames midair and crashed into a village home in Rajasthan's Hanumangarh seconds after the pilot bailed out, killing three women inside the house and leaving as many people in the vicinity wounded. The pilot parachuted to safety 25km northeast of the Suratgarh airbase in Sri Ganganagar, from where the Russian-made jet had taken off, the IAF said.
Residents of Bahlol Nagar village, 403km from Jaipur, reported hearing a loud bang in the sky around 9.45am, followed by the sight of the jet in flames and spiralling down at speed. The MiG-21, part of a fleet that the IAF is in the process of phasing out, apparently disintegrated as it fell. The bulk of the wreckage landed on the house of a man identified as Ratti Ram, IGP (Bikaner range) Om Prakash said. Ratti Ram’s wife, Bansho Kaur (45), and two other women – Banto Kaur (60) and Leela Devi (55) — were found dead with severe burns inside the damaged house.

The three injured were in a nearby compound where portions of the burning jet fell. Saroj (18), Vimla (19) and Virpal Kaur (32) were hospitalised in Hanumangarh.
Announcing a court of inquiry into the crash, the IAF said, “The accident has unfortunately led to the loss of three lives on ground. The IAF regrets this loss and offers its deepest condolences to the bereaved families."

The last such aircrash in India that led to casualties on the ground was on May 26, 2011, when three residents of a colony in Haryana's Faridabad died along with all seven people on board a nine-seater chartered aircraft that crashed into the locality. “The (MiG-21) pilot experienced an onboard emergency, following which he attempted to recover the aircraft per existing procedures. Having failed to do so, he initiated an ejection, sustaining minor injuries in the process,” said a statement from the defence PRO, Rajasthan.
CM Ashok Gehlot tweeted that the kin of the victims would be given ex gratia from the state government's Chiranjeevi insurance scheme. News agency PTI quoted Hanumangarh collector Rukmani Riar as saying Rs 5 lakh each would be paid to the families, who refused to accept the bodies after post-mortem and demanded compensation of Rs 50 lakh and a government job each. MiG-21 jets have had a patchy safety record. At present, the IAF has three MiG-21 squadrons with around 50 aircraft, according to officials. The IAF last year finalised a timeline of three years to phase out the remaining MiG squadrons.