AFP, AHMEDABAD, India: Four people were killed and 15 injured when an Indian airforce MiG-21 fighter jet ploughed into a village and set ablaze several houses in the western Indian state of Gujarat Friday, police said.
Three people including two children were instantly killed while a 50-year-old man succumbed to his injuries later in hospital, a police official said.
The Russian-designed jet crashed into a house in Lakha Baval village, 300 kilometres (186 miles) from Gujarat's commercial capital Ahmedabad.
Those killed instantly were a 19-year-old man, a five year-old boy and a five-year-old girl, a police official said.
Burning aviation fuel spilled across the village as the plane broke into 17 pieces, the air force said, adding that the fire engulfed seven houses in the village.
A total of 15 houses were damaged, police said, adding that six children and two women were among those injured by falling debris and fire.
The pilot bailed out safely and escaped with minor scratches, he said, adding that the aircraft had taken off from an airbase in the western Indian town of Bhuj, the epicentre of a 2001 earthquake that had killed more than 20,000 people.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known, an air force spokesman said.
On February 7, a MiG-23 fighter aircraft crashed in the desert state of Rajasthan, killing the pilot.
More than 100 Indian air force pilots have died in the past decade in crashes of MiGs, which are so accident-prone they have been nicknamed “flying coffins” in India.
