MiG-29 corrosion problem found

Out of 200 Russian MiG-29s grounded after a crash last year, in which the pilot was killed, 90 were found with corrosion problems. The grounding came after a MiG-29 broke up in flight over Khabarovsk killing the pilot. Investigators found that the tail fin broke off during the flight. It was the second crash in two months in the region.

Aircraft with as few as 150 flight hours were found with varying degrees of corrosion in the tail section. It could take a few more months to identify the cause of the corrosion.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Wonder if this is a design problem in all existing MiG 29s world wide. There have been no real shouts in the IAF regarding this . Though nobody shouts unless planes crash. Though again, MiG-29s have a decent flight record in the IAF after initial teething problems in the mid 90s. I believe there have been less than 10 crash incidents since inception, of which none IIRC had anything to do with corrosion.

The entire IAF MIG 29 fleet is undergoing an upgrade for engines, radar, and avionics at this time. Also the first of the 16 MiG-29k naval versions will roll out this year. Corrosion , if a problem on MiG-29s in general, would be of severe concern for the naval versions.

You have a source there Zaphod?

There are a lot of sources, but they're all pretty much identical.

www.india-defence.com...

yeap.. this is confirmed. There are serious internal discussions in progress now on whether the IAF should follow suit. Wonder what the other MiG-29 operators are thunking...