14/12/2013 10:29
Crew escape Russian fighter jet crash
Two Russian Air Force crew members ejected to safety when their MiG-31 interceptor crashed on Saturday in the Far Eastern Primorye region, local authorities said, according to RIA Novosti.
The aircraft went down 26 kilometers from the Tsentralnaya Uglovaya airbase near Vladivostok, after taking off at 5:07 a.m. Moscow time from the Knevichy airfield.
No-one on the ground was hurt.
The authorities suspect the accident was caused by a technical problem, a source said. The aircraft had just been overhauled, according to one source.
The MiG-31 is the fastest aircraft in operational service in the world. The Russian Air Force’s fleet of MiG-31s is currently in the midst of an upgrade to MiG-31BM standard.
A MiG-31 of the Kazakhstan Air Force crashed in April this year, killing the pilot and injuring the navigator, the service said at that time.