On June 08, 1989 A Soviet MIG-29 fighter crashed while doing a high-performance aerobatic routine at the Paris Air Show. The pilot, the lone occupant, ejected from the jet before it exploded but was so low his chute didn’t open.
The crash occurred in the middle of the airfield, up to 700 feet away from the nearest spectators, witnesses said. The pilot was taken to a military hospital where he was reported to be in satisfactory condition. No other casualties were reported.
The fighter performed flips and turns before making its final pass over Le Bourget airfield in preparation for landing when witnesses saw two pieces fall from the aircraft. The jet then plunged to the ground and burst into flames.
Batkov identified the pilot as Anatoly Kvochur, 37, and described him as “one of our best.”
Crash details:
Anatoly Kvochur was flying a single-seater Mikoyan MiG-29 Fulcrum ‘Blue 303’. While executing a low-speed, high-angle attack portion of his routine,a bird was sucked into the turbofan of his right engine (a bird strike), causing the engine to burst into flames. Kvochur immediately turned the remaining engine to full afterburner.
However, his speed, at 180 kilometers per hour (110 mph), was too slow to maintain stability on one engine. Despite his efforts, the stricken aircraft went into a steep dive.
Kvochur managed to steer the MiG away from the crowd and eject 2.5 seconds before impact. He landed 30 meters (98 ft) away from the fireball of the crashed plane.
The aircraft Kvochur was in had a Zvezda K-36D ejection seat at that time.
The same ejection seat also helped save the lives of the pilots of two MiG-29s that collided mid-air at the Royal International Air Tattoo on July 24, 1993, and the pilot and navigator of a Sukhoi Su-30 that crashed from a tail-strike at the Paris Air Show on June 12, 1999
