To begin with I'm glad the pilot bailed out is alright. My opinion on this is that India's government and Air Force should be held accountable for this accident and past twenty or so over the last ten years. To keep flying such an old design should not be allowed to happen I know some upgrades have been done. This old fighter still in 2008 makes up a large chunk of India's fighter fleet. They pull a lot of patrols and with a basic single engine are low cost to operate as well thus the reason there stilled used. India is up to about eight years now in there current fighter request and this fighter should have been replaced in the mid 80s never reaching the 90s. In 2008 for a country that has Su-30 MKI, missile programs, HAL Industry, and many others modern programs should not be flying any model Mig-21 period. India's Mig-29 were bought very early in fact purchase before a lot of former Eastern Block countries got there's. The Mirage 2000's India were bought right after the Fulcrums to put pressure on Russia to fixed the Fulcrums they sold to India that almost 90% had major problems. These are old jets themselves but have received some internal upgrades and are hanging on. India should have broke ties with Russia right then any other government would have. The early Mig-29 made the F-104 which has a bad rep look (I think landing mainly, slightly important) like a wonder jet.
The Mig-23 and later India produced Mig-27 again another model dropped by at the time and badly in need of money Russia, I guess they knew something right? Having a fraction of there Cold War squadron levels active was still better then flying Mig-21/23/27 before classic rock fighters. India hasn't learn this yet and pilots pay for it daily and I blame India's government and Air Force. For the money they spent on that useless Light Attack aircraft project going on for 17 plus years they could have bought modern fighters by now. A Mig-21 should be a cool fighter seen in a museum not flying over your head.
the_13th_redneck you want opinion you got it.
IAF's MiG-21 crashes in Kutch; pilot safe
Ahmedabad: In yet another mishap, a MiG-21 jet fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed in marshlands in Kutch near the Indo-Pak border on Friday. But the pilot bailed out safely.
The fighter crashed minutes after taking off from the Bhuj airbase, on a routine training sortie. The fighter crashed to the ground just 20 km away from the base, an IAF official said.
The pilot, Flight Lieutenant S Agashe, however, managed to bail out and was rescued and brought back to base. The IAF has ordered a court of inquiry to probe the incident.
This is the first crash of a MiG-21 this year. So far during the last ten years about 90 fighter planes have crashed.
The fighters are ageing and are on the verge of being phased out. The IAF has recently completed upgrade of 125 of these fighters with Russian and Israeli know how.
Link
http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1244220
The Mig-23 and later India produced Mig-27 again another model dropped by at the time and badly in need of money Russia, I guess they knew something right? Having a fraction of there Cold War squadron levels active was still better then flying Mig-21/23/27 before classic rock fighters. India hasn't learn this yet and pilots pay for it daily and I blame India's government and Air Force. For the money they spent on that useless Light Attack aircraft project going on for 17 plus years they could have bought modern fighters by now. A Mig-21 should be a cool fighter seen in a museum not flying over your head.
the_13th_redneck you want opinion you got it.
IAF's MiG-21 crashes in Kutch; pilot safe
Ahmedabad: In yet another mishap, a MiG-21 jet fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed in marshlands in Kutch near the Indo-Pak border on Friday. But the pilot bailed out safely.
The fighter crashed minutes after taking off from the Bhuj airbase, on a routine training sortie. The fighter crashed to the ground just 20 km away from the base, an IAF official said.
The pilot, Flight Lieutenant S Agashe, however, managed to bail out and was rescued and brought back to base. The IAF has ordered a court of inquiry to probe the incident.
This is the first crash of a MiG-21 this year. So far during the last ten years about 90 fighter planes have crashed.
The fighters are ageing and are on the verge of being phased out. The IAF has recently completed upgrade of 125 of these fighters with Russian and Israeli know how.
Link
http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1244220
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