Warplanes: May 5, 2002

Archives

: The Indian Air Force has lost 102 of it's Russian-made MiG-21 fighters and 39 pilots to crashes, from 1 April 1992 to 31 March 2002. Indian Defense minister George Fernandes claimed that the losses were due to human error, bird hits and technical defects. Fernandes also told the press that these accidents have cost the world's fourth largest $63.7 million over a ten year period.

The Indian Air Force has over 700 MiG-21s, with the most modern variant being the MiG 21bis. One website (Warbirds of India) tracks the critical information associated with MiG-21 crashes at http://www.warbirdsofindia.com/Crashes/search.asp?plane=50&fmdt=&tdt=&pg=1
- Adam Geibel

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close