MOSCOW, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- A MiG-31 fighter crashed in the Nizhny Novgorod region in the center of European Russia, with both pilots ejected, the Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday.
"The flight was carried out without ammunition and the plane fell in a deserted place causing no damage on the ground," RIA Novosti news agency quoted a ministry statement as saying.
The aircraft was carrying out a scheduled training flight, the ministry said. Rescuers promptly evacuated the pilots, whose lives are not threatened, it said.
A commission of the ministry is working at the crash site to establish the causes of the accident.
According to preliminary data, the cause of the accident was a technical malfunction, the statement said.
A source in a law enforcement agency told RIA Novosti that the plane fell near the town of Kulebaki, some 188 km to the southwest of Nizhny Novgorod, the capital of the region.
The plane exploded after the fall and was completely burned, the source added.
MiG-31 is a supersonic fighter designed to intercept and destroy air targets at low and high altitudes.
