ASTANA. Dec 30 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan has temporarily grounded its fleet of Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jets until an investigation into a Su-27 crash near Taldykorgan, the administrative center of the country's Almaty region, on December 21 is completed, the Kazakh Defense Ministry told Interfax on Friday.
"Flights of Su-27 fighter jets have been suspended until the causes and the circumstances of the air incident are established. The investigation is continuing," the ministry said, promising to subsequently announce its results.
Su-27 planes joined the Kazakh Armed Forces in 1996, the ministry said. Planes of this modification were last overhauled and upgraded in 2010.
It was reported that a Su-27 aircraft belonging to the Kazakh Defense Ministry's military unit no. 21751 crashed during a nighttime training flight around 25 kilometers from Taldykorgan on December 21. The pilot managed to divert the plane from a populated area before ejecting.
Kazakhstan's former Defense Minister and Senator Mukhtar Altynbayev said later, referring to the Air Defense Forces command, that the crash of the fighter jet had been caused by a malfunction of its fuel system.
"As far as Taldykorgan is concerned, as I have already said, it has been confirmed that it was still the fuel system. Yesterday I spoke to the commander-in-chief, who said that the cause was a malfunction of the fuel system," Altynbayev told reporters.