The Iranian Air Force has announced that a US-built F-14 Tomcat fighter jet crashed and exploded in Isfahan due to a technical malfunction in the engine but the two pilots survived after landing safely. US sanctions prevent the purchase of new equipment and parts
An Iranian army spokesman in the central province of Isfahan told the Tasnim news agency affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards that the pilot and co-pilot of an F-14 plane landed with parachutes thanks to the seats ejected and evacuated for hospital treatment. For him to crash.
Footage of the crash of the F-14 Tomcat fighter jet in Iran’s Isfahan. Both the pilot and co-pilot have ejected before the crash and are now hospitalized. pic.twitter.com/dLkSvonMRm
– Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) June 18, 2022
The plane caught fire after the crash
According to a Flight Global survey in 2019, the Iranian Air Force operates about 24 Tomacat F-14s, out of a group of 79 Groman-made fighter jets, with wings that Iran acquired in the mid-1970s before the Islamic Revolution. Some are still in service in Iran by improvisation in spare parts, as U.S. sanctions prevent the purchase of equipment and new parts, while the U.S. Navy has taken out of service its latest Tomcat in 2006.
This is the second aviation incident in Iran in less than a month. In May, an Iranian Air Force F-7 fighter jet crashed near the same city during a training mission, killing both pilots.
According to estimates, Iran’s F-7s were designed according to the model of the Chinese aircraft Chengdu J-7, whose third-generation export version is called the F-7 and is considered a copy of the 21st MiG from the Soviet era.
The Iranian Air Force has a selection of military aircraft made in Russia and the United States that are not in optimal condition, as decades of Western sanctions have made it difficult to maintain the aging navy.