MiG 21

Does this picture ring a bell?



I went online looking for this picture when I read Saikat Datta's piece on RDB in this week's Outlook. An excerpt:

A former air chief flew the MiG-21 from the air base at Bareilly to prove that all was fine with the aircraft. What was not told was that on that particular day, none of the MiG-21s at the base was in an airworthy state. Instead, one was flown in especially from Gwalior.

Shameful! Btw, I got the above image from this page where Tipnis has written "an ode to the MiG-21". Interestingly, that page also has a table inserted by Bharat Rakshak which says
Total Number of MiGs that served in the IAF: Approx 910
Number of MiG-21s lost in mishaps: 316 (as on Aug 2003)

That's more than 1/3rd of all MiG-21s. Keep in mind that the 910 figure is number of all MiGs and not just MiG-21s!

Saikat Datta also mentions that the three service chiefs got a scene to be dropped from RDB in which a defence minister took to the skies in a MiG-21 - something George Fernandes has done in the past.