482 of 872 MiGs procured since 1966 have crashed: Antony

NEW DELHI: The MiG fighters may have performed a stellar role ever since their induction began in the early 1960s — with the MiG-21 s even being the first supersonic jets to be flown by IAF pilots — but their high crash rate has seriously dented their track record over the years.

This came through once again on Wednesday, when defence minister A K Antony told Rajya Sabha that 482 of the 872 Russian-origin MiGs procured since 1966 had crashed from 1971-72 onwards . “A total of 171 pilots, 39 civilians, eight service personnel and one aircrew lost their lives in these accidents. The causes of accidents were both human error and technical defects,” he said.

The Indian MiG era, however , is not going to end anytime soon. While IAF has progressively phased out the older MiG-21 interceptors, ground attack MiG-23 s and high-altitude strategic reconnaissance MiG-25 s, it will be forced to fly the upgraded MiG-21 “Bisons” and medium-range strike MiG-27 s till at least 2017 due to continuing depletion in the number of fighter squadrons.

The over 60 MiG-29 air defence fighters will serve well into the next decade, undergoing as they are an extensive mid-life upgrade under a $964-million contract inked with Russia in March, 2008.