THE death of three civilians in a MiG-21 crash during a routine training sortie in Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan begs the question: how many more lives will be lost before this fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) is grounded for good? The pilot was lucky to escape with minor injuries, unlike the two pilots who were killed when a trainer version of a MiG-21 Bison had crashed in Rajasthan’s Barmer district in July last year. The ageing MiG-21 fleet is scheduled to be phased out by 2025, but it is too much to expect that the intervening period will be incident-free for pilots as well as civilians — unless accountability is fixed and exemplary action taken whenever such a crash happens.

The MiG-21, which India first procured from the Soviet Union a year after the 1962 China debacle, has seen several variants over the past six decades; these have been manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), India’s premier aerospace and defence company in the public sector. The sporadic crashes are mainly attributed to technical defects or in-flight human errors. For every technical fault that causes losses in both human and monetary terms, a thorough inquiry is a must to ascertain how and why HAL failed to ensure the MiG-21’s airworthiness.

A major reason why MiG-21 is being used way beyond its shelf life is the tardy progress of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme, which was launched back in 1983. Earlier this year, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence, in its report tabled in the Lok Sabha, had red-flagged ‘considerable delay’ in the supply of 40 Tejas Light Combat Aircraft by HAL. Lack of adherence to the timelines has widened the demand-supply gap, leading to deficiencies in the IAF’s fighter aircraft inventory. HAL and other stakeholders owe an explanation for the laxity plaguing this high-stakes project. The excruciatingly slow pace at which MiG squadrons are being retired from service does not bode well for the combat readiness of the IAF, which is grappling with a shortage of fighter squadrons. It is vital to expedite the production of the Tejas aircraft so that the MiG phaseout happens sooner rather than later.