A MiG-29 fighter jet crashed on Wednesday in the northern part of Iran after experiencing a technical malfunction, the state media reported.
The pilot, who reported that he was going to eject from the cockpit, was not rescued and his whereabouts were still unknown as of Wednesday night. The plane took off from Tabriz and crashed not far from the Azerbaijani border.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
The crashed plane was procured from Russia. Iran has been modernizing its MiG-29 aircraft fleet over the past two years with the help of the Russian Air Force.
Iran has been struggling to find spare parts for its aircraft due to sanctions imposed by the United States and has tried to compensate for that by indigenously producing various weapon systems and components.
This year it unveiled a new prototype of a fighter jet but experts believe that it is most likely an attempt to reverse engineer the American F-5 fighter jet.
