Pilot May Return to Air Show : Soviets Try to Play Down MIG-29 Crash in Paris
The Soviet Union sought to limit damage to its aviation reputation today after a MIG-29 combat jet crashed on the first day of the Paris Air Show.
Soviet aviation officials held a news conference in the belly of an Antonov-225 cargo aircraft, the world’s biggest plane, which is being exhibited for the first time in the West.
Piotr Balabuyev, head of the Antonov company, told reporters that MIG pilot Anatoly Kvorchur, who ejected from his plane two seconds before it crashed Thursday, is already out of the hospital. He said Kvorchur, a MIG test pilot, might even return to the air show.
Soviet aviation officials said it is virtually certain that the MIG-29, one of the Soviet air force’s most powerful fighters, blew its right engine as it flew a demonstration flight at Le Bourget Airport.
The MIG-29 was replaced in demonstration flights today by two other Soviet military jets never before seen in the West, the Sukhoi Su-25 and Su-27.
The Su-25, code-named “Frogfoot” by the NATO alliance, has been used extensively by Soviet forces in Afghanistan. The Afghan air force is also equipped with it.
The huge Antonov-225, carrying the Soviet space shuttle Buran on its back, has proved the biggest attraction here.
Hundreds of visitors crowded around the six-engine plane when the show was opened to the public today.
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