The Army of Serbia (VS) MiG-21, a supersonic jet fighter and interceptor aircraft plane, crashed early on Thursday near the village of Brasina in Western Serbia.

The plane took off from the airport in Batajnica in Belgrade and crashed while on a regular assignment.

A public prosecutor later said both pilots died in the crash, and that one local man in whose yard the plane fell was injured. 

The team of the Search and Rescue Service of the Air Force and Air Defense and firefighters came to the scene soon after the crash.

The crashed MiG-21 UM aircraft with registration number 16185, was the last of the type in the VS and spent 34 years in operation.

 It was a part of a total of 261 MIG 21 aircraft purchased in 1986 by the then for the needs of the then Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) which underwent the last overhaul four years ago.

Military analyst Aleksandar Radic told the Beta agency that the reasons why the plane was in use again were utterly unclear. He added the image that everything must be used had been created unnecessarily in Serbia.

“The plane was sent for a six-year-long overhaul in 2010, which is unusual because that procedure earlier lasted for months. Then it was back in use, but in May 2018 it was landed again due to technical problems and sent back to service on May 7 this year, ” Radic said.

He added that the use of that plane was very questionable, especially since Serbia brags about repairing a squadron of more modern MiG-29s.

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic told TV Pink from Istanbul he had heard about the accident and “that it was being investigated.”