What I fail to realise is how one sortie in a Mig 21, by a defence minister can change the perception of the mass about what they believe is a flying coffin. There are Mig 21s flying everyday on sorties,so I do not see any reason why a minister has to fly it with all the pomp and glory,to prove its worth,our pilots are doing that job pretty well everyday.The defence ministry should concentrate on procuring the Advance Jet Trainers (AJT) instead of dramatising what other wise is a routine sortie for our pilots. By now it is a well-established fact that there is a void in the training of pilots, as the IAF does not have an AJT, simple arithmetic has all ready proved the foolishness of our political structure. Two decades of bureaucratic negligence is taking a heavy toll on our Air Force, and not mention the economy considering the cost of training a pilot, and the cost of a fighter aircraft. If one considers the replacement of Mig 21s, the figure is unimaginable. The Mig 21 sortie is a gimmick and will receive more than its share of airtime and space in the media. The aging minister should consider to ground himself instead taking flights of fancy in military aircrafts.
His flying into one has proved nothing beyond raising the dust on the tarmac.
Georgie has simply wasted his valuable time proving nothing.
It was indeed a futile and rather a boyish attempt of Georgie to have flown in a questionable machine like this. It has already proved itself most unrealiable and only worthy of consigning to scrapyard for melting.
His "lagaav" for this aeroplane is both astonishing and somewhat even mysterious.
He must devote himself more on more pressing issues like (a) eradication of terrorism from J&K (b) readiness to pounce back at the Chinese at the borders (c) effective sealing of borders with Pakistan, etc.
A defence minister of a great democracy like Bharat Varsha has much more important and pressing things to do than flying in an aircraft proven dangerous beyond any doubt.
Frankly, this kind of media attention to George just for indulging in some cheap aerobatic stunts is disgusting. His flight cannot conceal the fact that plenty of good pilots and bad planes have crashed killing their occupants, and cost our country dear.
What did he expect? That the Mig in which he was flying would suddenly turn over and take a dive? The maintenance personnel would have done triple checks to ensure that the plane would not come down to earth too suddenly anyway.
And George is conveniently forgetting the fact that most of the crashes have not taken place in two seat trainers, but in the actual single seat combat aircraft. Does this mean that he'll try to take off in a single seater next?
If he has any brains, he'd rather invest his time in trying to find out a solution to the trainer jet problem than undertaking flybys for the papparazzi. I do agree he has been the best DefMin India has, but he's frittering that away by undertaking these photo ops for the sake of cheap publicity.
Grow up,Fernandes, and stop these childish stunts first. Nobody is impressed at your politico air shows!
Mr. Fernandes its easy flying in these MIGs for a joy ride and to prove a point but real heroes are those who r flying these "flying coffins" for a living and for the honor of the country
Though one does appreciate the Defence Minister's courage in taking the MIG flight at his age, one can only treat it as a symbolic gesture to show his solidarity with the air force pilots. For sure, this particular aircraft would have been thoroughly checked many times to ensure no mishaps.
What is the explanation for the regular mishaps / crashes of the Migs? Does his successful and safe flight mean that the crashed pilots were/are bad? Or is the maintenance bad? Or are the spares not of required quality, as pointed out by the Russians?
The D.M. cannot shrug away the regular crashes and the loss of young and talented lives. He has to provide a proper answer and a solution so that these losses are stopped immediately and the 'flying coffin' tag is abolished once and for all... I don't see any move towards achieving this.
The defence minister thinks he can dispel fears that the track record of the "flying coffin" can be erased with a single 25 minute sortie!!!! Some joke!!! He should rather take a look at the stats and try better measures to see that the brave and corageous fighter pilots of the IAF have better machines than some ancient rickety rackety, flying peice of nuts and blots!!! He thinks that such publicity stunts will garner him support. He should check up with the widows and families of the deceased pilots whose death was not in war, defending the country, but rather during "routine sorties and training flights!
Mishaps cannot be predicted hence they are calles accidents. So donot understand the purpose of diffence ministers this mig 21 ride. We should thinkover the un neccessary expenses incurred on security of such incidents. Such exps are more than one man's monthly income.
