The second fighter jet crashed in Iran within a month. Because the regime in Tehran is subject to severe sanctions due to various terrorist allegations, the air force is completely outdated and spare parts are missing. The army currently has over 300 machines.
Two pilots were injured in a crash of an F-14 fighter plane in Iran. As the Tasnim news agency reported at noon, this was the second crash in the region within a month. An F-7 aircraft crashed on May 24, killing both pilots on board. “An F-14 fighter jet had an engine failure in the Isfahan region this morning,” army spokesman Rassul Motamedi told Tasnim. The pilot and co-pilot saved themselves with the ejection seat, injured themselves during the parachute landing and were immediately taken to a hospital. According to Motamedi, the plane is “destroyed”.
In recent years, local media have repeatedly reported on crashes of fighter planes in the country. In February, an F-5 crashed in the northwest city of Tabriz, killing three people.
According to experts, the Iranian army has around 300 fighter jets from Russia, China, the USA and France as well as some so-called Saekehs, an Iranian version of the US F-5 fighter jet. In 2006, Iran officially retired its 80 US-made F-14 Tomcat fighter jets. However, since Tehran cannot buy new Western planes due to sanctions, the planes are still on duty.
Iranian state media only reported on Monday that two aerospace experts had died in “operations”. Ali Kamani, a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace branch, was “martyred” during a “mission” in the city of Khomein in the center of the country, the Fars news agency reported. In a separate incident in the northern Iranian province of Semnan, 33-year-old aviation expert Mohammad Abdus also died. Nothing was initially known about the circumstances of the deaths.
Almost three weeks ago, Colonel Ali Esmailsadeh, a commander of the Al-Quds Brigades, died in an accident at his home, according to state media reports. The Al-Quds Brigades are an elite unit of the Revolutionary Guards and are responsible for operations abroad. On May 22, Colonel Sajjad Chodai, a high-ranking member of the Revolutionary Guards, was assassinated in Tehran. According to a report in the New York Times, Israel is said to be behind the assassination.
The government in Tel Aviv is therefore expecting retaliatory attacks on its citizens in the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul this weekend and has issued a travel warning for Turkey.
