A MIG-21 Bison of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed in Rajasthan on Friday evening, killing the pilot wing commander Harshit Sinha. This is the fifth crash involving a Bison jet this year.
“This evening around 8:30 pm, a MIG-21 aircraft of IAF met with a flying accident in the western sector during a training sortie,” IAF said in a statement.
” With deep sorrow, IAF conveys the sad demise of Wing Commander Harshit Sinha in the flying accident this evening and stands firmly with the family of the braveheart”, it said.
This crash has once again turned the spotlight on India’s longest-serving fighter jet, its safety record, and IAF’s plans to replace the aging jets with newer ones in coming years.
The Bison is the latest variant of MIG-21 in IAF service. IAF operates four squadrons of MIG-21 Bison aircraft- a squadron has 16 to 18 fighter jets. the last of these upgraded MIG-21s are set to be phased out in three to four years.
The IAF got its first single-engine MIG-21 in 1963 and it progressively inducted 874 variants of Soviet-origin supersonic fighters to bolster its combat potential. Over 60% were license-produced in India.
More than 400 MIG-21s out 874 have been involved in accidents that have claimed the lives of more than 200 pilots during the last six decades, earning the fighters ominous epithets such as “flying coffin and ” widow maker”
Many MIG-21s have crashed because its the largest fighter jets in IAF inventory and IAF had to keep its MIG-21s fleet flying longer than it would have liked because of delay in the induction of new fighter jets.
Wing commander Abhinandan Varthaman scripted military aviation history by downing a Pakistan air force F-16 seconds before his own MIG-21 Bison was hit by a missile forcing him to eject on February 27-2019.
