Team News Riveting
New Delhi, July 29
The Indian Air Force (IAF) is going to retire one more squadron of MiG-21 Bison and finally phase out the remaining fleet in next three years.
The decision came amid recent crashes involving IAF vintage Russian combat aircraft fleet that has been dubbed as ‘flying coffin”. On Thursday evening, a MiG-21 Type 69 Trainer aircraft crashed in Barmer, Rajasthan killing both the pilots including Wing Commander M Rana and young Flight Lieutenant Advitiya Bal.
“The 51 Squadron based out of Srinagar air base is being number plated on September 30,” reports quoting news agency ANI said. With this, only three squadrons of the aircraft would be left in service and would be phased out by the year 2025, the report added. The IAF plans to number-plate one squadron every year.
The 51 squadron is a familiar name for the Indians for thwarting Pakistan’s aerial attack on the country on February 27, 2019, and bringing down an F-16 of Pakistan Air Force by a MiG-21 Bison piloted by Wing Commander (now Group Captain) Abhinandan Varthaman.
It was the maiden instance when a MiG-21 aircraft brought down an F-16 in air-to-air combat aircraft.
The IAF has been replacing the MiG-21 fighter jets with more capable aircraft like the Su-30 and the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).
In the last 20 months, 6 MiG-21s have been lost in crashes in which five pilots have lost their lives.
The MiG-21s were supposed to be retired a long time ago but delays in induction of the LCA Tejas aircraft have forced the IAF to continue flying these planes.
