Mirage aircraft crash-lands at Mauritius airport ...

[SN30952]

Mirage aircraft crash-lands at Mauritius airport ...
NDTV Tue, 05 Oct 2004 18:59:00 carried that message. NDTV is a TV station in India.
But since the message disappeared from all media.
Does somebody has track of this mishap?

[sn26567]

Does Mauritius have Mirage aircraft of its own? It would surprise me. Which invited nation would than make exercises in Mauritius airspace?

[SN30952]

Does Mauritius have Mirage aircraft of its own? It would surprise me. Which invited nation would than make exercises in Mauritius airspace?

The French? The South Africans? But also the Spanish Airforce, the Greek Airforce, the Saudis, the Emirates, the Pakistan, the Indian? and the Iraqi Airforce has(d) them.... So many airforces (try) to fly them.....

What drew my attention was 'Mauritius'.

The latest I heard was at Mirage-2000 warplane of the Indian Air Force crashing on Thursday, Sep 25, shortly after taking off from the central city of Gwalior.
The pilot ejected safely before the plane crashed into the sparsely populated region of Singpur near Gwalior. The aircraft lost a wheel during the routine sortie and the pilot located a remote site to crash to avoid ground casualties. The Indian Air Force has been plagued by crashes of its ageing fleet, although accidents of the Mirage have been rare.
But it seems to be again an Indian Air Force Mirage 2000 fighter jet that crash-landed in Mauritius after its landing gear failed to open, but the pilot came away from the incident unhurt.

Mirage 2000 pilots from the Mirage Aerobatics team at Aero India 2003, pose in front of KF112. [Copyright: Vayu Aerospace via Pawan Kaul] (btw Imagine there are people that copyright on property of the Indian state!)
The accident occurred at Plaisance, near Port-Louis, in the south-east of the Indian Ocean island state. The Mirage 'came to a stop at the southern end of the landing strip (at Plaisance international airport) after skidding for some 500 meters'.

The fighter jet was one of six Indian Air Force planes which had flown to Mauritius from South Africa for an air show on Monday, which attracted some 25,000 spectators. The five other Indian fighter jets were due to leave Mauritius on Tuesday, but the damaged Mirage would remain on the island for inspection.

"The Indian authorities must now undertake a careful inspection of the aircraft in order to evaluate the damage," the Indian ambassador to Mauritius, Pripuran Singh Haer, said.

"From the surface, the aircraft appears to have been only slightly damaged. I'd say that's a miracle," he said.

So the question is now: What is the Indian Air Force flying?
Mirages or Miracles?

[Advisor]

Mirage 2000 pilots from the Mirage Aerobatics team at Aero India 2003, pose in front of KF112. [Copyright: Vayu Aerospace via Pawan Kaul] (btw Imagine there are people that copyright on property of the Indian state!)

Pawan Kaul is awaiting a court decision on his stupidity.