MiG victim’s mother confronts Fernandes

The controversy over the airworthiness of MiGs clouded George Fernandes’ visit to Mumbai on Kargil Diwas yesterday when Kavita Gadgil, ...

The controversy over the airworthiness of MiGs clouded George Fernandes’ visit to Mumbai on Kargil Diwas yesterday when Kavita Gadgil, who lost her son in a MiG-21 crash, confronted the Defence Minister at a public function.

Gadgil, whose son Flight Lieutenant Abhijit died in a MiG-21 crash two years ago, presented Fernandes with a letter regarding the MiG’s upgradation when he reached the venue yesterday evening.

Gadgil, who introduced herself as a representative of all the families who have lost relatives in MiG crashes, told the minister: ‘‘The MiG is a dangerous aircraft and you should not fly it.’’

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Fernandes responded by saying, ‘‘Yes, I saw you and I read about you today.’’ Gadgil had called a press conference on Friday immediately after Fernandes announced his intention to fly a MiG-21 in Parliament.

Gadgil then waited on the sidelines when the function organised by the Karnataka-based Jaya Shreekrishna Parisara Premi Samiti began. After several speeches including Fernandes’s, which was in Kannada, when mediapersons insisted on a break for an interview with the Defence Minister, Gadgil walked up to the stage. Security personnel, however, prevented her from meeting Fernandes.

Gadgil, who started the Abhijit Air Safety Foundation (ASSF) to highlight issues concerning the MiG’s airworthiness, later said she wanted to meet the minister to dissuade him from flying the MiG. ‘‘I wanted to tell him that he is very precious for the nation and he should not fly the MiG which is a dangerous aircraft. He can sit in Delhi and make flying safer for the pilots instead.’’

Gadgil said on Friday that she had written to the President asking for an appointment on August 5. That’s the day when Flt Lt S.C. Shukla, who had the maximum number of sorties in Kargil to his credit, died after his aircraft crashed near Palam airport, Delhi, in 2000.

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A delegation of the victim’s family is expected to place their demands before the President. ‘‘Since we now have a President who is also a great scientist, we are sure the matter will get due consideration,’’ she said. The AASF will recommend trainer aircraft/flight simulators and better maintenance of these aircraft, Gadgil said.

‘‘Young fighter pilots in old MiGs have been dying without a war, without a cause. But everything appears normal to people who have not lost their flesh and blood,’’ said Gadgil, alluding to what she described as the ‘‘callous’’ attitude of the authorities concerned.

Gadgil said the minister was treating the matter as if it were a ‘‘joyride’’. ‘‘Can he walk impromptu into one of the airbases and pick a MiG-21 at random and then fly in it?’’ she asked.

Gadgil said the flight data recorders (FDR) of the MiGs, ‘‘which constitute 50 per cent of the fighting strength of the air force’’, are so primitive that a realistic assessment of cases of fatal crashes becomes difficult.