The fighter plane on the grass off the runway. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

Siliguri, May 23: A MiG-21 of the Indian Air Force made a crash landing at the Bagdogra air base this morning before its front portion broke into flames.

The pilot was rescued from the cockpit uninjured.

This is the second time in just over two months that Mig-21s from Bagdogra have been involved in this kind of mishap, putting a blot on the record of the air base that was recently voted the second best in the country.

Today around 9.15am, the MiG-21 was coming in to land after a routine sortie when the pilot, Squadron Leader S.L. Roy, noticed a problem with the front wheel, which was not opening. He was forced to make a belly landing and despite applying the emergency brakes and opening the parachute at the rear, the friction of the fuselage hitting the runway at speed resulted in the aircraft catching fire.

Sparks from the flames ignited the parachute brake at the rear of the aircraft too, airport sources said.

Three fire-tenders rushed to the aircraft even as it was coming to a halt on a grassy piece of land off the northern end of the runway and managed to douse the flames with foam within half-an-hour.

Black smoke billowed from the aircraft till the fire was put out. “I was going to my shop at Gwalapatti (near the airfield) when I heard a strange screeching noise. I turned around and saw smoke near the Rail Gate entrance to the air base,” said Atanu Ray, a resident.

Rescue teams opened the cockpit hatch and pulled out Roy. “Although he was unharmed, he was feeling dizzy and was rushed to the air base hospital at Bengdubi,” said a senior IAF officer. Later reports confirmed that Roy was out of danger.

The aircraft was badly damaged, sources in the IAF said.

According to the director of Bagdogra Airport, K.K Bhowmik, the incident did not affect the movement of civil aircraft as the runway was not blocked. In a similar incident on March 15 this year, however, the runway on the southern end had been blocked for around 30 minutes, delaying the take-off and landing of two flights.

Air Commodore Chhabra of the Directorate of Flight Safety at IAF headquarters in New Delhi said an inquiry would be ordered to find out what caused the front landing gear to malfunction.

In Shillong, Senior Officer in Charge of Administration, Eastern Air Command, Air Vice Marshal J.S. Gandyok said: “Sitting here, I cannot comment on the exact reasons for the crash. The court of inquiry will give the correct picture of what led to the crash.”

Bagdogra was named the second-best operational air force base in the country in the silver jubilee of the IAF last year. But the two recent incidents will probably prompt a review of aircraft maintenance and other aspects at the base, an airport official said.