On the 16th of April, Kazakhstan Air Defence Force (KADF) MiG-31 Foxhound crashed in a field shortly after taking off from Karaganda airbase. The two pilots were beginning their scheduled training when one of their engines went up on fire. They were ordered to eject from the aircraft but managed to aim the aircraft away from civilisation and towards an abandoned field. This intelligent move may have saved many lives.
Both pilots have multiple hours of experience in the MiG aircraft. They are both Lieutenant Colonels with 1161 and 888 hours of experience. Thankfully, both pilots survived with one of the pilots in a stable condition while the other in a moderate one. This has been the fourth crash of their MiG-31 aircraft with the other crashes occurring in 2007, 2008 and 2013.
The KADF have 115 combat aircraft in their fleet with 21 MiG-31's included. They also have another 13 Sukhoi Su-27/30s on order. The Mikoyan MiG-31 was first developed in 1970 by the Mikoyan design bureau. This supersonic aircraft was aimed to replace their older MiG-25 Foxbot. The aircraft was designed replicating multiple features on the older aircraft. The MiG-31 is one of the fastest aircraft in the world and is still operated by the Russian Air and Space Force (RuASF).
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