MiG 29K naval combat aircraft suffers damage on INS Vikramaditya

NEW DELHI: A MiG 29K naval combat aircraft has suffered damage while landing on the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya during operations in Arabian Sea off the coast of Goa, a Navy official said today.

The Russian-origin aircraft had taken off from the Naval airbase INS Hansa in Goa yesterday and was landing on the aircraft when it carried out a 'hard-landing' causing damage to the nose-wheel undercarriage, the official said.

The pilot of the aircraft is safe and the further details of the damage are being assessed, they said.

The Navy has ordered a Board of Inquiry (BoI) into the incident on the aircraft carrier procured from Russia at a cost of over Rs 15,000 crore late last year.

In this incident onboard the 44,500 tonne warship, the pilot missed the first two arrester wires used as aid by the pilot for landing on the carrier and while he was trying to take off again, it got stuck in the third arrester wire causing a hard-landing, Navy officials said.

MiG 29Ks have been procured by India from Russia and India is the only country in the world which operates these twin engine naval fighters.

India has ordered for 45 of these aircraft and this is the first accident involving these aircraft.