The Slovak Air Force MiG-29 pilot managed to steer the jet away from a populated and industrial area, showing high professional skills.
A Slovak Air Force MiG-29 jet fighter crashed during a training flight on Sep. 29, 2019.
The pilot ejected before the crash and survived. He is currently hospitalized in stable and not-life-threatening condition.
The service decided to temporarily suspend training flights of Mikoyan MiG-29 supersonic fighter jets, Defense Ministry Spokeswoman Danka Capakova said on Sep. 30.
“Training flights of the MiG-29 have been temporarily halted after one of the jets crashed on Saturday evening near Zlate Moravce in the Nitra region [in western Slovakia,” the spokeswoman was quoted by the Slovak radio as saying. “This decision won’t affect the airspace’s security,” she noted.
According to TASS the pilot managed to steer the jet away from a populated and industrial area, showing high professional skills.
According to preliminary data, the crash might have been caused by the lack of fuel. The Defense Ministry has not confirmed this theory. A special commission has been set up to investigate the crash.
Jaroslav Cabuk, a reader of The Aviation Geek Club, brought to my attention additional info about the MiG ivolved in the incident: “It was MiG-29AS, tactical number 6526. Slovak Air Force received the aircraft from Russia in 1995, it went through overhauls in 2015. The jet was piloted by one of the most experienced pilot in Slovak Air Force. The jet was meant to land in Sliac Air Base, but due to bad weather and visibility condition, another airfield (Bratislava) was chosen. Unfortunately, because of not yet known reasons (it’s being told that the jet ran out of fuel or had engine problems with fuel pumping) the MiG-29 crashed. The aircraft carried ready-to-fight armament, fortunately it didn’t detonated while impacting the ground.”
As we have previously reported, Slovakia signed a deal last year to buy 14 F-16 Block 70/72s from Lockheed Martin as it seeks to replace the Soviet-era MiG-29 Fulcrums.
The first of the jets are scheduled to be delivered by 2022.
Photo credit: KGyST via Wikipedia
