Peru MiG-29 crashes in test linked to spy probe
LIMA, Peru, March 13 - A Russian-made 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 massive 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'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.
TESTS TO CONTINUE
Tests on all remaining 15 operating MiG-29s will continue amid worries that
Montesinos may have weakened Peru's air defenses by ignoring their mechanical
problems, Pedro Morales, a legislator probing arms sales, told Canal N
television.
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 1996 purchase of Russian 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.