The Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF) has lost one its Mig-29SMs fighter jets in a take-off accident, Luftwaffe AS, a Syrian aviation blog, revealed on March 7.
The Mig-29SM crashed on March 5 a few minutes after taking-off from the Sheirat Air Base in the central governorate of Homs due to a technical failure. The blog shared a video showing the fighter jet taking-off as well as a photo of the crash.
The SyAAF MiG-29SM was piloted by Col. Yunes Al-Makdid whom faced a tech. failure moments after he took off from Sheirat AB -E to W- in an uncommon deployment to this airfield coming from Seen AB. pic.twitter.com/hhCUOfOUo3
— LuftwaffeAS (@LuftwaffeAS) March 7, 2020
The Fulcrum in question sadly crashed few kilometers at the outskirt of Sheirat village towards the north east of the airfield scoring the first loss of such type in SyAAF service, the pilot was KIA. pic.twitter.com/b7GSvKwmzE
— LuftwaffeAS (@LuftwaffeAS) March 7, 2020
The fighter jet’s pilot was not able to eject and died in the accident. He was identified as Col. Yunes al-Makdid from the coastal governorate of Lattakia.
This incident took place on 5th March 2020 pic.twitter.com/KuCWuSpmmk
— LuftwaffeAS (@LuftwaffeAS) March 7, 2020
The SyAAF operates around 20 Mig-29. The Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG upgraded the Syrian jets to the specially developed SM standard, which allowed them to fire beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles (BVRAAMs) and precision-guided air-to-surface munitions. Furthermore, the Mig-29SMs were equipped with active jamming systems.
This was the first documented loss of Syrian Mig-29 since this type of fighter jets entered service with the SyAAF in 1989.
Since the outbreak of the Syrian war in 2011, the SyAAF has used its Mig-29SMs a few times to provide Syrian troops, mainly in Homs and Damascus, with close air support.
