News In Brief

MIG crash in US reveals secret study of Soviet arms

A three-star Air Force general who was killed in a plane crash in Nevada was piloting a Soviet MIG-23 Flogger supersonic fighter used in a secrecy-shrouded US program that studies Russian weapons systems, Pentagon sources said Tuesday.

Lt. Gen. Robert M. Bond, vice-commander of the Air Force Systems Command, was killed last Thursday in a flying accident, but the Defense Department declined to make public details of the crash.

The sources would not disclose how the Air Force was able to obtain MIG-23 aircraft, but said such planes came from a Mideast country other than Israel.