Fernandes says MiG-21 to remain mainstay of air force

Friday, 01 August 2003, 19:30 IST
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AMBALA: After making a sortie in a MiG-21 jet, Defence Minister George Fernandes asserted Friday that the ageing Russian-designed plane would remain the "mainstay" of the Indian Air Force (IAF). Clad in a blue anti-gravity suit and flying in a two-seater version of the MiG-21 piloted by Wg Cdr N. Harish, Fernandes, 73, soared through overcast skies for about 25 minutes as the jet performed basic manoeuvres at speeds of up to 750 km an hour. After the flight, which was delayed for two hours by bad weather, Fernandes said: "I'm really impressed with this aircraft. There have been attempts to degrade these fighters and I wanted to dispel apprehensions about its safety. "The MiG-21 is the mainstay of our air force, and let's not forget that," he asserted, in an apparent riposte to critics of the accident-prone MiG-21, some of whom have dubbed it a "flying coffin". He indicated the flight was also a response to taunts in the media and in Parliament after he made a flight in June in the more sophisticated Su-30MKI jet. "They said the Su-30 is a new and safer aircraft, and I should fly in the MiG-21. But I wanted to fly in a MiG-21 even before that." He admitted the MiG-21s were being gradually phased out, but these were mostly older variants of the jet that had entered service in the 1960s and 1970s. Prior to the flight at 9.40 a.m. from the Ambala airbase, Fernandes underwent a medical check-up, participated in a pre-flight briefing and was familiarised with the MiG-21's cockpit, including ejection procedures. He also ate a high calorie breakfast to compensate for the quick rate at which calories are burnt during an enervating flight in the MiG-21. A military helicopter hovered over the airbase to meet any emergency. During the flight marked by manoeuvres like barrel rolls and stiff turns, some of them performed at heights of 5,000 metres, Fernandes was subjected to forces of up to 4G, or four times the gravitational pull of the earth. An audience comprising senior IAF officers and Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala watched the flight. The IAF has lost 163 MiG-21s since the jet was inducted in the force in 1963, and 102 of them since 1990. Fifteen MiG-21s have crashed since January 2002. A total of 45 pilots have lost their lives in the accidents. The IAF's problems have been compounded by MiG-21 crashes over residential areas that have claimed the lives of over a dozen civilians. The vociferous defence for the MiG-21 mounted by Fernandes and the IAF chief, Air Chief Marshal S. Krishnaswamy, however, has not convinced some relatives of pilots who have died in the crashes. Among them is Mumbai-based Kavita Gadgil, whose son Abhijit was killed in a MiG-21 accident in 2001 and who has set up a website to pressure the government into grounding the jets. "Something is seriously wrong somewhere and the authorities are afraid to tell us the truth. While we parents have made our children mentally and physically fit to be sent away in response to the call of arms, these fine lives are being needlessly lost in peacetime while the IAF refuses to tell us and the nation, why and how, if any corrective action is being taken at all," Gadgil said in an article on the website. "The results of the court of inquiry that is held after a crash are seldom published. Everyone except the IAF seems to acknowledge the grave and well-known technical shortcomings and mechanical failure -- faulty 'O' rings, leaking fuel tanks, spurious spares -- leading to frequent crashes of the MiG-21. MiG pilots are being given a deficient and thus deadly machine to fly." Gadgil also dismissed Fernandes' flight as a "political stunt". Addressing a news conference after the flight, Fernandes refused to react to such criticism. "I am always concerned about the IAF personnel and their families. It is not a one-time concern, it's a recurring concern. It's a concern I live with," he said. He admitted there were "certain problems" with the supply of spares for the MiG-21, but this issue had been taken up at the highest levels, including Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, with Russian authorities. Besides, he noted that the IAF was currently upgrading 125 MiG-21s to keep them flying till the end of the decade. "These upgraded aircraft have everything that a modern aircraft has." But experts say this will not make the demanding aircraft safer for rookie pilots, who have been involved in a majority of the crashes.
Source: IANS
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