Two die in Nigeria Independence Day mid-air crash

[Adam]

It seems a pair of Chengdu F-7Ni Fishcans (Chinece license-built MiG-21s) belonging to the Nigerian Air Force suffered a serious mid-air collision during the final rehearsal for their country's Independence Day Airshow in the capital of Abuja last Friday.

There were three crew on board; one ejected safely, one (named as Ibikunle Daramola) ejected but died in hospital, and another (Squadron Leader Bello Baba-Ari) was unable to eject and died at the scene.

The remainder of the show went ahead on Monday afternoon, featuring 23 aircraft. It was attended by the president of Nigeria, who also visited the sole survivor of the accident in hospital.

This sad news confounds what has already been a terrible few months for the MiG-21 and its derivatives. In July, a MiG-21 LanceR-C crashed at an airshow in Romania, killing the pilot. Later that month, an Indian MiG-21 Bison crashed while on operations, also with fatal results.

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