Wasted MiG-29 crashes before Peru's officials

By Alistair Scrutton

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - A MiG-29 fighter jet crashed on Tuesday near a military airport in northern Peru during a test to determine if it was obsolete and purchased as part of a corruption scheme, the Peruvian air force said.

The pilot ejected safely and the plane exploded in a rice field within sight of five lawmakers standing on the tarmac at Chiclayo airport. They were witnessing the checks of 16 MiG-29s in connection with a probe of former President Alberto Fujimori (news - web sites)'s fugitive ex-spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos.

A congressional commission ordered the MiG-29 tested amid reports the planes were obsolete and that their purchase from Russia and Belarus in the 1990s was used as a front by Montesinos to siphon millions of dollars into secret bank accounts. Montesinos was Fujimori's closest aide for 10 years.

``They (the military) say it (the crash) was because there are many birds around, but we have found that's not the case ... and it was due to technical faults,'' commission head David Waisman said against a background of plumes of black smoke. He did not elaborate.

Local television showed smoke rising from the charred wreckage while firefighters sprayed foam on the fuselage. The legislators were peering at the wreckage only yards (meters) away.

No one was injured in the crash, according to an air force statement that added the plane went down about 2.5 miles (4 km) from the middle of the main landing strip. The plane was attempting to land when the crash occurred.

Witnesses differed over how far the legislators were from the crash. Estimates ranged between a few hundred yards (meters) to 2.5 miles (4 km).

Waisman said the pilot ejected while the plane was at an altitude of about 655 feet (200 meters) and that he maneuvered the jet to ensure it avoided crashing into nearby houses in Chiclayo.

It was the second MiG-29 crash in Peru in four years.

Congressional investigators have alleged that $48 million in accounts linked to Montesinos in Switzerland was creamed off Russian arms deals, and a congressional report this year cited evidence of ``crimes and serious irregularities'' in arms purchases between 1990 and 2000 by Fujimori's government.

Congress highlighted the corrupted purchase of wasted MiG-29s.

The legislature ousted Fujimori last November after he fled to Japan to escape a corruption storm linked to Montesinos, who was last heard of in Venezuela and is wanted on charges ranging from corruption and extortion to running death squads.

Fujimori was succeeded by interim President Valentin Paniagua, who has called an anti-corruption crusade.

Не падают так самолёты! Якобы приехали посмотреть упадёт-неупадёт и он взял и упал. Обычная борьба за трон тамошней верхушки, подогретая таким веским "следственным эксперементом".