The Indian Air Force has grounded the entire fleet of the MiG-21 fighter aircraft following the crash of a jet in Rajasthan’s Hanumangarh on May 8 in which three civilians were killed.

“The entire fleet of MiG 21 fighter aircraft (around 75)has been grounded for the time being as the court of inquiry into the May 8 incident is still underway,” sources said.

Sources added that all the MiG-21 aircraft arecurrently undergoing technical evaluation and checks, adding they will be allowed to fly only after clearance by the teams carrying out the scrutiny.

Three people were killed after the wreckage of theMiG-21 aircraft fell on a house in Hanumangarh shortlyafter it took off for a routine training sortie from the Air Force Station at Suratgarh on May 8.

The pilot had ejected safely and sustained minor injuries.

The crash of the jet had again put the spotlight on the ageing fleet of the Soviet-origin aircraft.

Sources said the MiG-21 was inducted into the IAF in the early 1960s and since then more than 800 variants of the supersonic fighterwere inducted into serviceand remained the frontline fighter jet of the force for a long time.

During this period, there were over 400 accidentsinvolving the jet that claimed the lives of around 200pilots.

The IAF last year finalised a timeline of three years to phase out the MiG-21 fighter squadrons.

The IAF also plans tostart the phasing out of the three squadrons of Mig-29 fighter jets in the next five years.