The Legacy of Indian Failures
Is it Time to Shelf the Mighty MiG-21? On May 8, 2023, Indian-owned fighter jet MiG-21 crashed near Rajasthan and killed two civilians. Indian Air Force has a long history of crashing the fighter jet, prominently MiG-21. These fighter jets in India are named “Flying Coffin” and “Widow Makers”. MiG-21 was procured in 1963 from Russia, and since that time, in its 60 years of history, 170 pilots of IAF have been killed by them. Since 2010, there have been a number of incidents where 20 MiG-21 have crashed till now. Two MiG-21 crashed, right after a year of induction in 1963. Similarly, in 2021, six MiG-21 were crashed which resulted in the killing of 3 people. Whereas in 2022, two pilots were also killed by trainer version of the MiG-21. One of the most prominent incidents happened in 2019 when Indian Fighter Pilot named Abhinandan Varthaman crashed a MiG-21 across the international border into Pakistan’s territory and was later captured by Pakistan Air Force. This incident resulted in wo...