Air Fighter MIG-21 Lancer, Helicopter IAR 330 Puma Crash in Romania

UPDATE March 3: The pilot of the air fighter MiG-21 LanceR is confirmed dead. Also, the seven crew members of the search-and-rescue helicopter are confirmed dead. Eight people died in both air crashes in Romania on March 2.

Military prosecutors investigate the cause of the crashes.

UPDATE: One IAR 330 Puma helicopter conducting the search-and-rescue mission to find the air fighter MiG-21 LanceR also lost connection with the control tower. Before disappearing from the radar, the helicopter pilot reported bad weather conditions.

There are two different crashes – one of the air fighter one of the helicopter conducting the rescue mission. The Romanian Ministry of Defense says five dead following the helicopter’s crash.

The IAR 330-Puma helicopter, which took off on Wednesday, March 2, around 8:21 P.M., in a search-and-rescue mission of the Mig 21 LanceR aircraft, lost its radio connection with the control tower and disappeared from the radar around 8:44 P.P. The pilot had reported adverse weather conditions and had been ordered to return to base. The last known position of the helicopter, which had on board a crew of five soldiers, is the area of Gura Dobrogei, about 11 km from the aerodrome. The condition of the crew or aircraft is unknown. And in this case, the search-and-rescue operations were launched.

Romanian Ministry of Defense Press Release after the disappearance of the helicopter from the radar

Initial news:

On Wednesday, March 2, at 8:00 PM, a MiG 21 LanceR aircraft from the 86th Air Base, carrying out an air patrol mission over Dobrogea, lost its radio connection with the control tower. At 8:03 PM, it disappeared from the radar between Cogealac and Gura Dobrogei.

The aircraft had taken off from Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base 57 at around 7.50 PM.
There are no data at this time on the condition of the pilot and the aircraft.

Search-and-rescue operations have been launched as a matter of urgency. An IAR-330 Puma helicopter took off urgently towards the area of possible impact, and the intervention crews of ISU Dobrogea also set off towards this area.

To be updated.