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Journalism of Courage
A MiG-21 fighter aircraft made an emergency landing at the Indian Air Force’s Bagdogra airbase in the early hours on Friday and within minutes, burst into flames.
The pilot, Squadron Leader Falguni Roy, had ejected safely after detecting a fault in the undercarriage, which prompted her to go for the belly landing.
The aircraft had taken off at 10 am from the Bagdogra airbase on a routine sortie. But it was back within half-an-hour.
The fire-fighters of the Indian Air Force doused the flames within 15 minutes and the runway was cleared for resumption of civilian flights. An inquiry had been ordered into the accident.
The MiG-21 has a history of crashes, due to which it has acquired the sobriquet “flying coffins”.
Earlier this year, a MiG-27 crashed near the Air Force station at Hashimara in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district.
