BUCHAREST, April 20 (Xinhua) -- A MiG-21 LanceR fighter crashed Tuesday afternoon in Mures County in central Romania, and the pilot managed to eject himself safely.
The Defense Ministry intervened soon with a helicopter to pick up the pilot and transport him to a hospital in county capital Targu Mures.
The pilot is in a stable state, conscious and cooperating with the intervention teams that arrived on the spot, said the ministry.
According to a statement of the same source, the military aircraft from a nearby airbase was on a training flight and crashed in an uninhabited area.
The Romanian Air Forces has been equipped with MiG aircraft since 1962 and has introduced more than 400 aircraft over the years. In the early 1990s of the last century, over 110 of the aircraft began to be upgraded over 100 aircraft in the LanceR model, with new avionics and NATO-compatible systems.
MiG aircraft have been involved in more than 20 accidents in the last 30 years, resulting in the deaths of over 10 pilots. The most recent tragic accident occurred on July 7, 2018 when a MIG-21 LanceR crashed at an air show at an airbase in the southeast of the country.
There are currently over 20 MiG aircraft still in service, and they are gradually being replaced by second-hand F-16 aircraft that are being introduced in recent years. Enditem