Romania Suspends MiG-21 Operations | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-05.13.24

Airborne-NextGen-05.14.24

Airborne-Unlimited-05.15.24 Airborne-AffordableFlyers-05.16.24

Airborne-Unlimited-05.17.24

Sun, Apr 17, 2022

Romania Suspends MiG-21 Operations

Lays Groundwork for F-16 Units to Assume Mission, Citing "High Rate of Accidents"

One of the remaining holdouts of the increasingly vintage fighter, Romania, has announced the suspension of all flight operations involving their MiG-21 Lancer fighters. 

The Ministry of Defense said that going forward, they will only operate the 17 hand-me-down F-16s acquired from Portugal. The change is the result of the type's "considerably high rate of accidents", according to the ministry. The MiG-21 has acquired a macabre infamy in those still operating the aged aircraft, piling up a yearly string of accidents around the world.

Recent Romanian losses include an aircraft crashing during a patrol flight last March, dropping off radar contact while on a formation flight. That crash was doubly tragic, as a search and rescue IAR 330 Puma, looking for the fighter's crash site, also crashed with 7 aboard. A similar crash occurred in India last December, capping off 2021 with 5 crashes involving a MiG-21. Romania's MoD has had enough, laying the groundwork to switch to the F-16 for their air patrol needs.

Along with the suspension, they hinted at a deal that would nearly double their Falcon fleet, saying “At the same time, measures have been taken to speed up the procedures for the purchase of Norway’s 32 F-16 aircraft."

“The available resource of aircraft within the three squadrons of multifunctional F-16 aircraft, which will be operated by the Air Force, ensures their operation for at least 10 years and will constitute an operational air transit capability for the 5th generation F-35 aircraft.” 

The draft law approving the acquisition has passed through the early stage of approval, and will soon make its way to parliament. 

FMI: www.english.mapn.ro

Advertisement

More News

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (05.17.24): Very High Frequency

Very High Frequency The frequency band between 30 and 300 MHz. Portions of this band, 108 to 118 MHz, are used for certain NAVAIDs; 118 to 136 MHz are used for civil air/ground voi>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (05.17.24)

Aero Linx: Aviation Suppliers Association Established February 25, 1993, the Aviation Suppliers Association (ASA), based in Washington, D.C., is a not-for-profit association, repre>[...]

ANN FAQ: Submit a News Story!

Have A Story That NEEDS To Be Featured On Aero-News? Here’s How To Submit A Story To Our Team Some of the greatest new stories ANN has ever covered have been submitted by our>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: ANN Visits Wings Over The Rockies Exploration Of Flight

From 2021 (YouTube Version): Colorado Campus Offers aVariety Of Aerospace Entertainment And Education Wings over the Rockies Exploration of Flight is the second location for the Wi>[...]

Airborne Affordable Flyers 05.16.24: PRA Runway, Wag-Aero Sold, Young Eagles

Also: Paramotor Champ's, Electric Ultralight, ICON BK Update, Burt Rutan at Oshkosh! The Popular Rotorcraft Association is reaching out for help in rebuilding their private runway >[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2024 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC