IAF's MiG-21 Bison in fatal accident in central India; Group Captain A Gupta loses life

In a tragic incident, a MiG-21 Bison aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed on Wednesday morning. It happened when the aircraft was taking off for a combat training mission at an airbase in central India, the IAF said. The Indian Air Force took to Twitter and informed about the fatal accident.

IAF Group Captain A Gupta loses life

Group Captain A Gupta's life was lostin the crash, the IAF said, expressing its condolences towards the Group Captain's family members. A Court of Inquiry (CoI) has ordered by the Indian Air Force to determine the cause of the accident.

MiG-21 Bison

Among the world's first supersonic jet aircraft, MiG-21 is a single-engine, single-seater multirole fighter/ground attack aircraft of Russian origin. Since 1963, India has introduced more than 1,200 MiG fighters into its Air Force. As of 2019, 113 MiG-21s are known to be in operation in the IAF. However, the plane has been plagued by safety problems on account of its age. Since 1970 more than 170 Indian pilots and 40 civilians have been killed in MiG-21 accidents. IAF's Wing Commander Abhinandan was flying a MiG-21 Bison the day Pakistan's air force attempted to attack India in Nowshera after the IAF's Balakot airstrike. In his annual press conference after that, then IAF chief Air Marshal BS Dhanoa had replied to an answer on the MiG-21 by saying 'we fight with all our aircraft'.