Soviet MIG-29 Crashes at Paris Air Show

As several thousand aviation specialists looked on, an advanced Soviet MIG-29 combat aircraft crashed in flames on a grassy apron of Le Bourget Airport during the opening Thursday of the Paris Air Show.

The Soviet pilot, who had thrilled the crowd with a complicated series of high-performance maneuvers just before the crash, managed to eject only seconds before the plane slammed nose-first into the ground.

Although videotapes of the crash showed that his parachute had only partially opened, Soviet officials said pilot Anatoly Kvotchur, 37, was in “more or less satisfactory condition.”

No immediate cause was given for the crash.

Air show spokesman Patrick Guerin said the plane seemed to have “a mechanical problem with the left engine.” He said the afterburner of the left engine failed to fire during a low-speed turn at about 1,000 feet.

38th Air Show

The crash was a spectacular start for the 38th Paris Air Show, a huge biennial event attended this year by more than 140,000 aviation industry representatives from 34 countries.

The MIG-29, first shown in the West last September at the Farnborough Air Show in England, was one of the star attractions offered by the largest Soviet delegations ever to attend the air show. The Soviet air force has about 450 of the combat aircraft in service, and it has been sold to East Germany, North Korea, India, Syria, Yugoslavia and Poland, according to the respected reference book “Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft” and other sources.

U.S. officials were miffed last month when Turkish authorities returned a MIG-29 flown to Turkey by a defecting pilot without letting them have a chance to examine the aircraft.

The accident Thursday occurred just as Soviet officials were holding a press conference in the cavernous cargo hold of an Antonov 225, the world’s largest aircraft. The Antonov carried on its back the Soviet space shuttle Buran. Both aircraft were making their first appearance in the West.

Prime Trade Fair

The Paris show alternates with Farnborough as the industry’s prime trade fair at which buyers can compare weaponry and shop for new airplanes. About 350,000 visitors are expected to attend this year’s show, jamming hotels and filling restaurants with aviation engineers, aircraft salesmen and military officers.

The main American attraction this year is the Lockheed SR-71 “Blackbird” reconnaissance airplane, making its first public appearance outside the United States. The Mach-3 aircraft, first delivered to the U.S. Air Force in 1966, has rarely been photographed. This year, however, the veil has been lifted and the svelte, dark-green, spy plane stood naked to cameras on the tarmac of Le Bourget.

Because the show occurs this year on the 20th anniversary of the first American moon landing, several former astronauts, including Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon, are present and met with French President Francois Mitterrand during the opening ceremonies.

The Paris Air Show has been the scene for a number of serious accidents over the years, including the 1973 crash of a supersonic Soviet Tupolev 144 that killed 13 people. American B-58 “Hustler” bombers crashed here in 1961 and again in 1965, each time killing the three-man crew.

In 1969, an American Fairchild Hiller 1000 helicopter exploded and crashed, killing the pilot. In 1977, a twin-engine Fairchild A-10 crashed after performing a low-altitude acrobatic loop, also killing the pilot.

One of the worst air show accidents, however, happened last Aug. 28, at Ramstein Air Base in West Germany. Seventy people died after three jets of an Italian Air Force aerobatics team collided and one jet plowed into spectators.

ACCIDENT MARS AIR SHOW OPENING

Soviet fighter Length: 56 ft. 5 in. Wingspan 37 ft. 8 3/4 in. Engines: Two Tumansky R-33D turbofans. Top speed: 1,450 m.p.h. Radius: 715 miles Capacity: Pilot only Armaments: Six air-to-air missiles and bombs Source: “Jane’s All The World’s Aircraft”