The Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-21 fighter aircraft often makes it to the front pages of Indian newspapers -- but for the wrong reasons.
A series of crashes continues to dog the jet aircraft, which makes up 40 percent of the Indian Air Force's supersonic jet fleet.
The technical data on the MiG-21 is impressive. First built in the 1950s, more MiGs have been made than any other jet airplane. Fast, small, agile and above all simple, it can be turned out in prodigious numbers. Thousand of the fighters have made their way to Europe, Asia, Africa and Central America.
The aircraft has been built in 20 different versions of four generations, and serves about 50 air forces on four continents.
The MiG-21 is not known for its radar or hauling capabilities, and without any computers or navigation equipment, it is known as a pilot's plane. About 3,000 MiG-21s are still in service around the world, most in countries that cannot afford new fighter aircraft and have opted for major upgrade programs instead.
For Indian Air Force pilots, the name MiG-21 spells doom. One hundred and two MiG-21s have crashed in the past decade, killing 80 pilots. In media reports, the jet is often referred to as a "flying coffin." The Indian Air Force has the highest accident rate for the Russian-made MiG aircraft.
Less than a week after he was heckled by wives of pilots killed in fighter jet crashes, Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes Friday undertook a sortie in a Russian-made MiG-21 to dispel fears about the jet. The pilots' widows want the aircraft to be grounded.
Parents of several pilots killed in the crashes will call on Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Tuesday and seek the grounding of the fleet. The group will be led by Kavita Gadgil, whose son 27-year-old Flt. Lt. Abhijit Anil Gadgil was killed in a training sortie in 2001.
"To us our children are more than just a memory," she told the Times of India newspaper. "To the Indian Air Force they are now just a statistic and we, in their officialese, have been reduced merely to 'the next of kin.'"
Last Wednesday, Fernandes told Indian parliament the aircraft would be phased out gradually. Without specifying a time frame , he said factors such as calendar life and maintainability would be kept in mind before phasing out the oldest of the 14 variants of the MiG series.
Fernandes, who is facing criticism in the wake of as many as 30 MiG-21 crashes in the past 35 months, is the first Indian defense minister to ride a fighter jet. Last month, he flew the Sukhoi aircraft.
The 25-minute MiG-21 flight, commanded by Wing Commander N. Harish, was aimed at restoring faith in the Russian-made aircraft.
Irate opposition lawmakers had dared Fernandes to undertake the MiG flight following a spate of accidents.
"There has been an attempt to degrade the MiG-21," Fernandes told reporters at Ambala air force base after the flight. "I did this because I also wanted to see what our pilots go through."
Fernandes has blamed 60 percent of MiG crashes in recent years on pilot error. Gadgil does not buy that argument, however.
"They (defense officials) say that it is mistake of the pilot whenever a plane crashes," she told the Times. "If that is true then how do they clear these pilots to fly these planes?"
Fernandes has also blamed technical defects and defective spare parts bought from East European countries. Sources in the air force say some of the ill-fated aircraft were bought used from former Soviet countries. The aircraft that crashed on July 15 in Srinagar was a plane the Ukraine Air Force had decommissioned and the IAF bought three years ago.
There are four old and outdated simulators, which are used to train the pilots, for more than 300 MiG aircraft. Sources said though the MiGs were now being upgraded, the training was still done on the old simulators.
India must replace the simulators and upgrade to keep up with newer versions of the plane. Talks over the British-built Advanced Jet Trainers are stalled over costs.
Still, the MiG-21 has the backing of India's Air Chief Marshal S. Krishnaswamy. Last month, he defended the aircraft, saying it had an excellent flight safety record.
Despite some variants being nearly 30 years old, Krishnaswamy pointed out that after averaging nearly 55,000 sorties in the Past five years, the MiG-21 was one of the safest aircraft flying today.
"With such a high number of sorties, a pilot has a 99.993 percent chance of surviving the flight. That is easily one of the highest flight safety records for any aircraft," he said.
Since its independence in 1947, India has shopped for defense equipment in Britain, France and the Soviet Union. Today India has one of the largest MiG-21 fleets worldwide and a modernization program in cooperation with Russian companies has been set up.
Since the break up of the Soviet Union, India has begun defense shopping elsewhere around the world. A strategic arms deal is likely to be signed during Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's September visit to New Delhi. Israel has agreed to upgrade the MiG-21 fleet, supply avionics for the MiG-27, UAVs, laser-guided bombs and thermal imagers.
