A Romanian Air Force training jet crashed Monday in at a military airfield in the city of Bacau in eastern Romania with both pilots ejecting safely.
The IAR 99 Soim (Hawk) advanced trainer crashed about 13:20 Monday during an exercise, near Romanian Air Force 95th Air Base in Bacau in eastern Romania, that reported by the romaniatv.net.
The Air Force said there were no houses or other structures near the crash site and the fire was extinguished.
Pilots are in stable condition. 41-year-old Commander Brysug has more than 1,000 hours of flight on the IAR 99 Soim, and Captain-Commander Pena, 40, has a flight experience of nearly 450 hours.
The IAR 99 Șoim is an advanced trainer capable of performing close air support and reconnaissance missions.
The IAR 99 replaced the Aero L-29 Delfin and Aero L-39 Albatros as jet trainer of the Romanian Air Force. The aircraft is of semi-monocoque design, with tapered wings and a swept back tail unit.
Currently, the Romanian Airforce owns 21 IAR 99 aircraft, 11 of which are IAR-99 Soim. The aircraft are also scheduled for modernization works costing 124 million euros so that the military can use them to train pilots for the new F16 jets, Minister Fifor.
