A recently improved MiG 29 aircraft, caught fire and dropped to ground near the Azeri border • Iranian Air Force distressed spare parts and aircraft due to sanctions

• Iranian Air Force MiG 29 aircraft

An Iranian MiG 29 fighter plane crashed Wednesday in the north of the country after apparently experiencing technical difficulties, the media reported in the Islamic Republic.

The fate of the pilot who flew the plane is unclear after he reported to his base that he intended to get off the plane. The aircraft took off from the Iranian Air Force base in Tabriz and crashed not far from the Azeri border.

The crashed aircraft, the MiG 29, has undergone a major overhaul by the Russian aerospace industry over the past two years. This is one of the more advanced fighter jets of the Iranian Air Force, especially in light of the improvement, during which innovative systems were installed on the veteran aircraft.

The aircraft is one of 20 aircraft of this type that have been praised by Moscow. The aircraft were bought in the late 1980s, after the Iran-Iraq war and were the latest aircraft in the Iranian air fleet.

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The Iranian Air Force suffers from a severe shortage of spare parts for many of its aircraft, some of which were manufactured in the United States and US sanctions prevent it from placing orders for more modern fighter jets from Russia or China.

Iranians turned to self-propelled aircraft production and this year introduced a new model for a fighter jet, but experts say it is probably a copy of the US Nose 5 and that it is a mid-level fighter jet that does not compete with the latest models such as the Nose 35 aircraft.