MiG-21 Bison crashes while landing in Rajasthan, pilot killed

[bennedose]

The MiG 21 has recently completed 50 years in Indian service and is due to slog on for a few more years. A book to comemmorate the event was published and the authors are Air Marshal Philip Rajkumar and Pushpindar Singh. I know AM Raj and was privileged to be able to review the book. I mention this here because the book removes many of the myths around the MiG 21.

Here is a link to the book review.
Indian Air Force :: First to the Last - 50 years of the MiG 21 with the IAF

You can read what pilots felt and how media misinformation hits morale.

 

[t_co]

The MiG 21 has recently completed 50 years in Indian service and is due to slog on for a few more years. A book to comemmorate the event was published and the authors are Air Marshal Philip Rajkumar and Pushpindar Singh. I know AM Raj and was privileged to be able to review the book. I mention this here because the book removes many of the myths around the MiG 21.

Here is a link to the book review.
Indian Air Force :: First to the Last - 50 years of the MiG 21 with the IAF

You can read what pilots felt and how media misinformation hits morale.

The biggest issue is one of age - combat aircraft are simply not meant to be flown for the amount of time that the IAF has kept some of its Mig-21 airframes in service.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

The biggest issue is one of age - combat aircraft are simply not meant to be flown for the amount of time that the IAF has kept some of its Mig-21 airframes in service.

B-52 is exception to that rule.

 

[t_co]

B-52 is exception to that rule.

B-52s don't fly at supersonic speeds on a single engine, either.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

B-52s don't fly at supersonic speeds on a single engine, either.

Still, almost 60 years of service is damn respectable.

Boeing B-52 Stratofortress - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Armand2REP]

maintenance cycles means HAL primarily, right ? They have always been a fav. punching bag for IAF...not sure if they alone are responsible for this sad state of affairs.

shoddy aircrews implies the ground staff & airmen, correct ? This is new & worth understanding.

Can someone throw some light on it ?

As much as we like to bash HAL, it is not their responsibility to make sure everything works before the aircraft goes up. That is the job of IAF aircrews. If HAL sends them defective crap, it is the responsibility of the aircrew to comb the aircraft and discover the problem before putting the pilot in danger. Are they inspecting and testing enough? Are they conforming the flight schedule to the manufacturers inspection cycle? If they did their job, defective aircraft would rarely get into the air.

 

[bose]

The main problem with IAF's migs is apart from being very old, the spare parts bought from the disintegrating soviet republics of Kazakhistan and others were spurious and faulty in nature...

 

[TrueSpirit]

As much as we like to bash HAL, it is not their responsibility to make sure everything works before the aircraft goes up. That is the job of IAF aircrews. If HAL sends them defective crap, it is the responsibility of the aircrew to comb the aircraft and discover the problem before putting the pilot in danger. Are they inspecting and testing enough? Are they conforming the flight schedule to the manufacturers inspection cycle? If they did their job, defective aircraft would rarely get into the air.

Sounds plausible. Wonder why no one has ever raised it before....

 

[Armand2REP]

Sounds plausible. Wonder why no one has ever raised it before....

To protect the honour of IAF...

 

[ersakthivel]

IAF personnel must have already done so & applied the know-how. But results are far from encouraging.

And, it is not just Mig21. Every single aircraft in IAF is highly vulnerable to crashes (Mig's & Jaguars, moreso).

However, despite Su-30MKI's well-known.susceptibility to FOB, it's fleet has experienced only 3 or 4 crashes in its 16 years of operational tenure (squadron service) in India, which by IAF's standard is a commendable feat.

I do not think there are any easy answers to this poser. IAF seems equally clueless. Lets see what's the culprit this time (tech. snag or something else). Most defence analysys say it is due to extremely poor safety culture in our nation, whatever that means.

What is PLAAF's crash rate, by the way ? Is it on par with Western AF's ?

Sukhoi has two engines, Mig-21s only one.So once there is a problem in engines Mig-21 has no escape.

Also the mirage-2000 too has only one engine, but it's crash rate is not as high as Migs.

The reason is the engines of the mig series are of unreliable designs for a single engine fighter.

No use blaming the aircrews and HAl alone.The mig-21 has handling problems while landing inherent to it's design of airframe.

Recently the IAF grounded 100 odd mig-23s saying that their engines have unserviceable problem after a crash which killed a group captain.

Who is to blame for that? Air crews or HAL?