Mig 27 crashes in India

NEW DELHI, October 23 (RIA Novosti) - An Indian Air Force (IAF) MIG-27 Flogger ground support aircraft crashed Friday in northeast India, the country's Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The aircraft was on a routine training flight when it went down near the Hashimara Air Force Station in the state of West Bengal.

The pilot ejected safely and there were no casualties on the ground. An inquiry has been ordered to investigate the causes of the accident, the ministry said.

The incident is the second MiG-27 crash and the ninth IAF aircraft accident this year. Another MiG-27 crashed in northwest India in May, injuring seven people on the ground.

The MiG-27 aircraft was originally built in the former Soviet Union in the mid-1970s before it was licensed to be produced in India.

Known as the Bahadhur (Brave) in the IAF, the MiG-27s form eight operational squadrons.

According to the military, the current upgrade program will keep the MiG-27 operational for another 10 years.

Black Hawk Helicopter Crashes on Navy ship

1 dead, 8 injured in helicopter crash on Navy ship

NORFOLK, Va. — An Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed on a Navy ship during training, killing one service member and injuring eight, the Navy said.

Service members were rappelling down a rope from the helicopter to the USNS Arctic around 8 p.m. Thursday off the Virginia coast near Fort Story when the crash happened, Navy spokeswoman Lt. J. G. Megan Issac said.

The helicopter crashed into the ship's stern and ended up on its side, Rear Adm. Mark H. Buzby, commander of the Military Sealift Command, said at a news conference Friday morning at Naval Station Norfolk. A small fire on the ship's deck was quickly extinguished.

The cause of the crash was being investigated.

A second helicopter took the injured people to a hospital for treatment. None had life threatening injuries, Issac said.

Names of the dead and injured and their service affiliations were not immediately released.

"We deeply regret that it occurred, but unfortunately, it is part of the business we do at sea," Buzby said.

Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Phil Rosi said the training exercise involved the two Army helicopters and members of a Naval Special Warfare unit.

"It was a routine visit, board, search and seizure exercise that takes place between Army and Navy units on a fairly regular basis," Buzby said, adding that ships like the Arctic are used because they are similar to merchant ships.

The exercise trains the service members on how to quickly board a ship that might be threatened by pirates or terrorists, for instance, Buzby said.

The Arctic has returned to Naval Station Norfolk, and the damaged helicopter remained aboard the ship.

The Arctic was damaged and will be repaired quickly. Its deck had superficial damage where the helicopter landed, but the ship's propulsion was not affected.

Officials said the Arctic has no official home port but frequents naval stations in Norfolk and Earle, N.J.


The Associated Press

F-16s were "prepared" to shoot down Northwest Airlines Flight

Armed F-16s from the Wisconsin Air National Guard were on the runway and "prepared" to shoot down the errant Northwest flight if the order had come, a NORAD spokesperson, Mike Kucharek told ABCNews.com.

Air traffic controllers feared Northwest Flight 188, from San Diego to Minneapolis, might have been hijacked after its pilots failed to respond to radio transmissions for more than an hour. NORAD ordered at least two planes scrambled at the guard facility in Madison, Wisconsin.

The NORAD spokesman said the F-16s, normally armed with 500 rounds of air cannon bullets and six air-to-air missiles, were on the runway when the alert was canceled once the pilots finally made contact with FAA controllers.

Air traffic controllers reported the pilots initially failed to respond to commands as it passed from the air space controlled by the FAA Denver Center into the area controlled by the Minneapolis Center.

The concern grew as the pilots ignored a command from the Minneapolis approach controllers to begin a descent for landing.

The National Counterterrorism Center in Washington was notified, and authorities began to scrutinize the passenger list, according to Pierre Thomas and Jason Ryan of ABC News.

Once contact was re-established, after an hour and 18 minutes of silence, the controllers ordered the pilots to carry out a series of zigzag maneuvers in order to prove "the pilots had command and control of the craft," according to people briefed on the incident.
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