Why Indian MIGs are 'Flying Coffins'?

Bangalore: Defense is said to defend us, but how they will if they themselves are roaming in “flying coffins”. According to various surveys and statistics, Indian Air Force (IAF) is said to have the worst record of more than 500 air crashes, and this is so called a ‘World Record’, a world record of destruction. None of any other world’s Air Force faced such a disappointing honour of such huge number of crashes on non-battle situations. It was the 500^th incident on 25^th Aug, 2008, when a MiG – 29 crashed into the Arabian Sea off Jamnagar coast during a training mission. It can be a accident or mortal mistakes once, twice or even thrice a year, but not for hundreds of times. Why this simple equation is so hard to accept for our Ministers?

The recent incident in Sirsa, Haryana, where a MiG-21 crashed shortly after takeoff was a fortunate event for the pilot as he escaped the grave crash by ejection. It was the 7^th incident in the MIG-21 crash this year, which is again not easily acceptable. In 2003 report from ‘The Hindu’, 350 such incidents took place during the last 13 years alone, where more than 170 pilots lost their lives. Such incidents earned the tag of “flying coffins”. An unspecified American analyst said that, “This is really unacceptable. Some heads should roll over this, and frankly this insane crash rate is making the IAF the laughing stock of air forces around the world”.

Some Salient facts about the crashes with references:

1. India, using mostly Russian aircraft, has an accident rate of 6-7 per 100,000 hours flown compared to 4-5 for all NATO air forces. 2. The Indian rate had been over ten for many years, and it is still that high, and often higher, with other nations (including Russia and China), that use Russian aircraft designs. 3. F-15s and F-16s have an accident rate of 3-4 per 100,000 flight hours. 4. 1970 – 2005: IAF has recorded around 700 crashes since 1970, with around 180 pilots, and scores of civilians on the ground losing their lives. 5. 1970 – 2005: If the 793 MiG-21s progressively inducted in IAF since 1963, 330 have been lost in accidents.