Moves Follows Accident Monday In Siberia

Russia has grounded its entire fleet of MiG-31 interceptor airplanes following an accident Monday that resulted in the loss of one of the airplanes in Siberia.

Russian officials said that the pilot ejected safely, and the impact with terrain did not cause any damage on the ground, according to Defense News. The Russian Defense Ministry said that the plane was not carrying any weapons when the accident occurred.

After the announcement of the accident, senior military sources told the TASS news agency that a "decision has been made to suspend flights of this aircraft type until the causes and the circumstances of the crash are established."

The statement said that the preliminary data suggests that the plane went down due to an unspecified equipment failure, but was not specific about the nature of that failure.

Analysts say that the language suggests that the airplane went down because of poor maintenance. Seven Russian military aircraft were lost last year for that reason, according to the report.

Russia is spending the equivalent of about $378 million for the refurbishment of about 50 of its remaining 120 MiG-31 airplanes by the end of 2018. It took delivery of the first batch of 24 of the MiG-31BMs last April, and the defense ministry said eventually all of the country's MiG-31s will be modernized.

(Image from file)

FMI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan_MiG-31