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Azerbaijan’s MIG-29 Black Box Data Being Decoded

Politics Materials 30 March 2008 15:22 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, 30 March / Trend corr E. Huseynli/ The black box data of the MIG-29 which crashed in Azerbaijan is being decoded, the Spokesman for the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry Eldar Sabiroglu said at a press conference on 30 March.

The fighter MIG-29 of the Air Forces of Azerbaijan crashed during the trainings on 29 January. Both pilots in the board of the fighter died. On 17 February, the body of one of the pilots and the wreckage of the airliner were found. The experts of the Emergency Situations Ministry, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan and the State Border Service were involved into the search.

Last year Azerbaijan purchased upgraded MIG-29 airliners in Ukraine. MIG fighters are produced in Russia. Elena Lvova, the PR head of the Russian airliner constructing corporation, previously said to Trend that the crash could be caused by sale and use of time-worn equipment.

Sabiroglu said that decoding of the black box data is a complicated and long procedure. Search of the body of one of the victims Fakhraddin Askarov is underway.

Nobody was detained in connection with the incident. The MIG-29 airliners, which are used by Azerbaijan for protection of its air borders, several times crashed during the trainings in Russia, Malaysia, Peru, Slovakia and Armenia.

The MiG-29 "Fulcrum" ("Tochka Opori" in Russian) was designed and built to be a single-seat supersonic, all-weather, air superiority fighter, with the MiG-31 "Foxhound", the latest and perhaps last fighter production items from the Mikoyan Design Bureau. The primary role of the MiG-29 is to destroy air targets at distances from 60 to 200 kilometers (30 to 110 NM) at all altitudes, on all profiles, in any weather, and under all ECM conditions. In addition, the basic MiG-29 is capable of limited air-to-ground operations and in advanced versions, has been optimized to attack both stationary and moving targets with precision guided munitions.

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