Another MiG-21 in accident in New Delhi/Jaisalmer Indian Air Force, another pilot was killed when his fighter plane went down Jaisalmer Friday evening in the region of Rajasthan. The MiG-21 crashed at around 8.30 pm near Sudasiri village near the India-Pakistan border. Some eyewitnesses said the jet caught fire in the air and crashed with a massive explosion, with debris spread over an area of one kilometer.
The pilot, identified as Wing Commander Harshit Sinha, did not get a chance to eject from the plane. An official said that the Indian Air Force has ordered a court of inquiry to ascertain the exact cause of the accident. There have been five MiG-21 crashes this year, in which three pilots have been killed. On 17 March, a highly experienced pilot, Group Captain Ashish Gupta, deployed in IAF’s ‘Top-Gun’ School Tactics and Air Warfare Development Establishment Killed in Gwalior when his MiG-21 plane crashed soon after take-off Gwalior air Base.
Another Pilot, Squadron Leader Abhinav Choudhary (28), killed when his MiG-21 ‘Bison’, which had taken off for a “routine night combat training flight” from Suratgarh airbase in Rajasthan, crashed on May 20.
The old Soviet-origin MiG-21, the first truly supersonic fighter to be inducted by the Indian Air Force in 1963, has had a high crash rate over the years. Of the 872 MiG-21s progressively inducted by the IAF, over 400 have been lost in accidents since 1971-72, with over 200 pilots and nearly 50 civilians killed on the ground, as previously reported by TOI.
The MiG-21 should have been retired long back. But the huge delay in induction of new fighters, especially the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA), this means that the IAF still operates four MiG-21 squadrons (16-18 jets each) even after upgrading to ‘Bison’ standards.
The pilot, identified as Wing Commander Harshit Sinha, did not get a chance to eject from the plane. An official said that the Indian Air Force has ordered a court of inquiry to ascertain the exact cause of the accident. There have been five MiG-21 crashes this year, in which three pilots have been killed. On 17 March, a highly experienced pilot, Group Captain Ashish Gupta, deployed in IAF’s ‘Top-Gun’ School Tactics and Air Warfare Development Establishment Killed in Gwalior when his MiG-21 plane crashed soon after take-off Gwalior air Base.
Another Pilot, Squadron Leader Abhinav Choudhary (28), killed when his MiG-21 ‘Bison’, which had taken off for a “routine night combat training flight” from Suratgarh airbase in Rajasthan, crashed on May 20.
The old Soviet-origin MiG-21, the first truly supersonic fighter to be inducted by the Indian Air Force in 1963, has had a high crash rate over the years. Of the 872 MiG-21s progressively inducted by the IAF, over 400 have been lost in accidents since 1971-72, with over 200 pilots and nearly 50 civilians killed on the ground, as previously reported by TOI.
The MiG-21 should have been retired long back. But the huge delay in induction of new fighters, especially the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA), this means that the IAF still operates four MiG-21 squadrons (16-18 jets each) even after upgrading to ‘Bison’ standards.
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