It's quite interesting. You can't derive a Diesel/ Ptl car if it's older than 10/ 15 years respectively but are forced to fly the aircrafts which are 30- 40 years old and of 1963 vintage, when the first batch of MIG 21s was taken over by the Indian Airforce. Every time a crash takes place, people get away by making a suitable statement. The figures are frightening: "Of the 872 MiG-21s progressively inducted by IAF, over 400 have been lost in accidents since 1971- 72, killing over 200 pilots and almost 50 civilians on the ground, as was earlier reported by TOI. 25-Dec-2021". It's purely the Govt and our top leadership who are to be blamed for forcing the obsolete and poorly maintained aircrafts on young pilots. There have been Air Chiefs who have proudly demonstrated that they could still fly those but that's not the best way to shirk one's responsibility. Modernisation will have a cost but losing trained pilots by way of forced martyrdom is a much bigger cost and blow on everybody's morale. The Govt needs to prioritise and act fast. If 'thousands of crores' of rupees can be provisioned for subsidies or the banks can write off 'lacs of crores' of rupees as NPAs, they sure can divert their attention to modernisation and get rid of the so called flying coffins. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti
