Accident Report

NEW DELHI: In the first mishap of an IAF aircraft this year, a MIG-27 ground attack fighter crashed near Hashimara air base in North Bengal on Thursday but the pilot managed to eject out safely. The aircraft got air borne at 12:30 PM for a routine training mission and crashed 10.2 kms east of the base at 12:40, an IAF spokesman said. He said the pilot managed to eject safely seconds before the plane crashed into the ground. There was no report of any casualty or damage on the ground, he said. The Air Force has instituted a Court of Inquiry to find out the causes of the crash. The MIG-27, which were inducted in the late 80s, have had a comparatively safer record than other MIG variants. 

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MiG-27 aircraft crashes in Jalpaiguri 
Press Trust of India 

Thursday, January 31, 2008 (Siliguri, New Delhi) 
A MIG-27 ground attack aircraft crashed in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district on Thursday injuring a boy but the pilot ejected to safety. The MIG-27 crashed near Chinchula tea garden at 12:40 pm, Superintendent of Police, Jalpaiguri, S Tripurari told PTI. An IAF spokesman in Delhi said that the aircraft was on a routine training mission and crashed 10.2 km east of the Hashimara airbase. The pilot, Jasbir Singh, parachuted to safety, Tripurari said, adding that he was extended immediate help by the Army after he reached the ground. The boy was hit by debris of the aircraft and was injured, the SP said. It was the first mishap of an IAF aircraft this year. The Air Force has instituted a Court of Inquiry to ascertain the cause of the crash. The MIG-27s, which were inducted in the late 80s, have had a comparatively safer record than other MIG variants. This was the first crash of a MIG-27 in the last 10 years. 

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At six, Niki sees a flight of fury  
Fighter plane crashes in front of child in North Bengal 
ANIRBAN CHOUDHURY 
(Top) The mangled fuselage of the MiG-29; Niki Thapa (middle) in hospital and Binolata Toppo at the site. Pictures by Anirban Choudhury 

Alipurduar, Jan. 31: Little Niki Thapa paused to pick flowers and almost got plucked away by a fighter plane. A MiG-27 today crashed to the ground within 35 metres of the 6-year-old girl in Jalpaiguri, making her possibly one of the youngest Indians to watch such a disaster at so close a quarter. Happily, she lived to tell the tale, though the waves of shock and the ear-splitting sound have affected her hearing. “I had gone to collect flowers (in a betel nut field) and heard a big sound. When I looked up, a plane was crashing in front of me,” she told The Telegraph from a hospital bed. “I almost fainted. Even now, I am afraid,” the Class II student said in the evening, still straining her ears hours after the noon-time accident to catch the questions. The yawning crater at the crash site — Bhatpara Tea Garden, 35km from Alipurduar town — bears testimony to how close a shave the girl had. The pilot, Wing Commander Jasbir Singh, bailed out and landed with minor injuries 3km away. The plane had taken off from the nearby Hasimara airbase. Doctors said it did not appear that her hearing had suffered permanent damage. The girl’s father, Himel, teaches in a school. Niki now has a life-long story that can rival the best anecdotes of boastful frequent fliers but had she been on a plane? “I play with a toy plane in my house but from such a close distance I had never seen a real plane before,” she said. But today’s crash had another witness, 19-year-old Binolata Toppo, who saw the crash from her house which, 25 metres away, was closer to the crash site than where Niki was standing. Binolata, who was washing utensils in the backyard, said: “What I saw today I will never forget. Just before the plane crashed, a basket (possibly the pilot’s ejection seat) fell from the plane.” She then ran inside, still clutching a steel plate. “I was so shocked that for at least half an hour, I could not speak clearly. My mother’s hearing has suffered. But we are lucky because the plane did not land on our house.” Not all were lucky, though. Six goats and four pigs in Binolata’s house died. 

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MiG-27 crashes in tea 
Statesman News Service 
SILIGURI, Jan. 31: A MiG-27 fighter jet of the Indian Air Force crashed at the Bhatpara Tea Estate under Kalchini police station in Jalpaiguri district this afternoon. According to the authorities of the IAF's Hashimara Airbase, the aircraft had taken off from Hashimara at 12:30 p.m. and was on routine surveillance. According to IAF officials, the aircraft developed engine trouble within five to six minutes after take off and caught fire in the air. The pilot, wing commander Jaspreet Singh ejected himself and the MiG crashed into Bhatpara Tea Estate at about 12:38 pm. The crash site is located close to the plantation's hospital and is about 12 kms distant from the Hashimara Airbase. Officials of the Bhatpara Tea Estate rushed the pilot to the Kalchini police station and the IAF air-lifted him thereafter. Both the IAF and the Kalchini police said, the pilot was safe and had not sustained any injury. A Court of Inquiry would be constituted to investigate the crash, an IAF spokesperson said from Hashimara. Three fire tenders from Hamiltonganj rushed to the spot and fought for hours to douse the flames of the MiG's debris. 

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I am relieved that nobody died: pilot 
SUBHAS CHANDRA BOSE 
Hasimara, Feb. 3: The MiG-27 that crashed in Bhatpara Tea Estate on Thursday afternoon had developed a mechanical problem minutes after it took off from the Indian Air Force station here, the pilot said today.Wing Commander Jaspreet Singh had taken off at 12.28pm and soon sensed trouble in the fighter plane’s engine.Sitting in room 142 in the officers’ ward of the station hospital, Singh said he had immediately radioed the air traffic control. “I tried my best to get back to base safely, but the engine caught fire and I immediately ejected,” Singh said. The plane spiralled away trailing smoke and crashed three kilometres away at 12.35pm, seven minutes after take off. “I was told that I had parachuted down on Raimatang Tea Estate. The people there were very helpful and provided me with a Maruti Omni and drove me to the Kalchini police station,” the pilot said. Singh was flown back to the air station in an IAF helicopter that landed in the field in front of the police station soon after the crash. He was taken directly to the station hospital, where he is undergoing rigorous medical check-ups. The wing commander will have to go for further medical tests at the Command Hospital in Calcutta. R.S. Upadhyay, the commanding officer of the hospital here, said Singh was “in good health” and would be released in a day or two. “I was lucky to survive and also glad to hear that there were no human casualties on the ground where the aircraft impacted, though I have not visited the place as yet,” said the pilot with more than 2,600 hours of flying time. The station commander, Group Captain M.K. Behl, today said the black box from the MiG-27 has been recovered from the Bhatpara tea garden. He said experts from all over India had come here to find out the reason for the accident. Singh, who joined the IAF as a pilot officer in 1993, was transferred here from Tezpur in Assam last April. “My wife gave birth to our second child, a son, on December 18. She told me over telephone that she is coming to see me from Mohali soon,” the pilot said. --------------------- 

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