MUMBAI
\nTwo pilots have been killed in India after a Soviet-era fighter jet crashed during a training sortie, the air force said, heightening safety concerns after a string of incidents involving the aircraft.
\nThe MiG-21 came down on Thursday night in the desert of western Rajasthan state near the city of Barmer, the defence ministry said.
\nThe crash was the sixth MiG-21 aircraft to have gone down since January last year, with five pilots killed.
\nThe Indian Air Force (IAF) said the training aircraft \u201cmet with an accident\u201d and said an investigation was ordered to determine the cause of the crash.
\n\u201cIAF deeply regrets the loss of lives and stands firmly with the bereaved families,\u201d the air force tweeted.
\nLocal media footage showed flaming wreckage spread over a large area.
\nDefence Minister Rajnath Singh said he was \u201cdeeply anguished\u201d by the loss of the two pilots in the crash.
\n\u201cTheir service to the nation will never be forgotten,\u201d Singh said on Twitter.
\nMiG-21 jets first entered Indian service in the 1960s and for decades served as the backbone of the country\u2019s air force.
\nNumerous crashes in the past few decades, however, have led to the planes being dubbed \u201cflying coffins\u201d because of their poor safety record.
\nIndia is investing billions of dollars in modernising its air force, an initiative motivated by its decades-old rivalry with Pakistan and increased tensions with China.
\nIts military has bought dozens of French Rafale fighter jets, with deliveries starting in 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MUMBAI Two pilots have been killed in India after a Soviet-era fighter jet crashed during a training sortie, the air force said, heightening safety concerns after a string of incidents involving the aircraft. The MiG-21 came down on Thursday night in the desert of western Rajasthan state near the city of Barmer, the defence ministry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274431,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-274421","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n