India: A MiG-21 Bison fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed on Monday while landing at Uttarlai airbase in Rajasthan's Barmer district, killing the pilot.
"One MiG-21 Bison crashed at the Uttarlai airbase at about 9.30am. The pilot sustained fatal injuries," the IAF said in a statement.
The aircraft had taken off with its flight lieutenant-rank pilot from the airbase for a routine training sortie and crashed while landing at the runway, officials said.
Defence ministry spokesperson in Jodhpur Colonel SD Goswami said a court of inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the reason behind the crash.
There was no reported loss to civilian life or property, he said.
Last month also, a MiG-21 plane from the same airbase had crashed but the pilots had managed to eject safely. The vintage MiG-21s have been in service for over 40 years now and they are expected to continue flying till 2018-19 in view of the delays in the induction of the indigenous light combat aircraft.
The IAF had inducted over 900 MiG-21s in its fleet over a period of 40 years, half of which were lost in different crashes.
This year, this is the sixth crash involving an IAF aircraft and fifth of a fighter plane.