The Iranian military says one of its fighter jets crashed in the central Isfahan Province on June 2 but that the two pilots were able to eject before it hit the ground in a desert area, Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency reported.
"The fighter ran into technical problems after departing the Shahid Babaei Air Base in Isfahan on a training flight and crashed midday near Hasanabad village," Iran’s air force said in a statement published by Fars.
The news agency said emergency workers arrived at the site of the crash and that the pilot and the copilot had been taken to the hospital.
Fars said the incident happened during a training flight of the F-7 fighter jet, which is the Chinese variant of the Soviet MIG 21 fighter. Iran has purchased 24 of the planes in recent years.
Since the Iranian revolution, more than 2,000 people have died in civilian and military air crashes in the county, including at least five military crashes in the last four years. Senior military officials have been killed in some of these crashes.
