Russian Air Force Says 90 MiGs Dangerous

Written by admin on March 16th, 2009

MOSCOW — A large part of the Russian Air Force fleet has been found unsafe during inspections made after a MiG-29 plane lost part of its tail on a training flight, the Air Force said Friday.

The Air Force grounded the entire MiG-29 fleet after the Dec. 5 crash in southern Siberia, an area where another one of the jets had crashed in October. A check of the planes’ condition began as a military panel investigated the cause of the December crash.

Air Force spokesman Vladimir Drik said on Friday that about 90 MiG-29s had been found unsafe to fly and would need repairs. More than 100 of the planes have been cleared for flights, and a number of others remain to be checked, he said.

Drik did not say how many MiG-29s the Air Force has. Russian media reports put their number at about 300 and the entire fighter fleet at some 650.

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