23rd Air Base

The 23rd Air Base (Polish: 23 Baza Lotnicza) is a Polish Air Force base, located 6 km east of Mińsk Mazowiecki. It was officially constituted on 1 January 2001, replacing the disbanded 1st Aviation Regiment "Warszawa". The main unit based there is the 1st Air Tactical Squadron flying MiG-29 fighters.

23rd Air Base
Near Mińsk Mazowiecki in Poland
Site information
OwnerMinistry of Defence
OperatorPolish Air Force
Site history
In use1 January 2001-Present
Garrison information
Current
commander		Col. Maciej Trelka
Garrison1st Tactical Squadron
Airfield information
IdentifiersICAO: EPMM

On 18 December 2017, one of the MiG-29's stationed here crash landed in a forest near Kałuszyn while performing a landing approach.[1] The pilot survived. Reports afterward were contradictory whether he ejected or not.[2] On 21 December 2017, the MoD confirmed that the pilot did not eject.[3] This was the first crash of a MiG-29 during its nearly 3 decades long operational history in the Polish Air Force.[4] The second crash followed on 4 March 2019. This time the pilot ejected and survived.[5]

References
  1. "Polish Air Force MiG-29 Crashes in Minsk Mazowiecki. It's The First Ever Crash Of A Polish Fulcrum" The Aviationist, 19 December 2017
  2. "Polish Fighter Jet Missing, Search Underway" Sputnik (news agency), 20 December 2017
  3. "Wiceszef MON o katastrofie myśliwca: pilot MiG-29 nie katapultował się", 21 December 2017. TVN 24
  4. "Polish MiG-29 jet fighter crashes" Archived 22 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Jane's Information Group, 19 December 2017.
  5. ""Zobaczyłam, jak spada samolot". Straż: to maszyna wojskowa" TVN 24, 4 March 2019



This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.