There are some incidents in the country which keep happening again and again, but even after this, we do not want to learn any lesson from them. Amidst the barrage of arguments, everyone can have their own arguments in this matter. Some will cite the system, and some will blame the lack of resources or time for this, but what is not going to change amidst all this is the truth, which has already happened. Indian Air Force Flight Lieutenant Siddharth Yadav died at the young age of just 28 years in a plane crash on April 2. His death has once again started a debate about the decades-old planes being used by the Indian Air Force. The Indian Air Force (IAF) itself has admitted that ‘the pilots faced a technical fault in the Jaguar fighter planes and the accident happened.’
At the level of sympathy, a mother’s emotional letter is giving a big message to the entire system today. The mother of Flight Lieutenant Abhijeet Gadgil, who died in a MIG-21 crash in 2001, has written on Facebook about the Air Force plane accidents, “I want you to remember. Get angry. Demand better. Don’t wait for the next accident to care.” 75-year-old Kavita Gadgil writes, “Don’t limit these boys to photo ops and patriotic hashtags, dear citizens of India, another soldier is gone, Flight Lieutenant Siddharth Yadav. Not martyred in war. Not killed in battle. But lost in a 46-year-old Jaguar jet that should have been grounded long before he was born. He died flying an aircraft that the world had retired decades ago. An aircraft that, like the MIG-21, is still terrorizing our skies and taking the lives of our brightest and bravest, not because of enemy action, but because of our own indifference.” The mother further writes, “My son, Flight Lieutenant Abhijit Gadgil, died in a similar way in 2001. Since then, more than 340 IAF aircraft have crashed more than 150 pilots have been killed. The numbers are horrifying. The silence about them, even worse. And yet, we carry on. No accountability. No reform. No outrage. Instead we get advice from ministers and bureaucrats who talk big about innovation and a ‘deep tech’ revolution. Who blame young entrepreneurs and dreamers for not doing enough. While their own machinery, the PSUs, the Defence Research Organisation, the state apparatus, continues to fail our armed forces year after year. We talk of becoming a global power, we demand respect on the world stage but we send our officers for flying on old planes, borrowed time and borrowed parts. And we call it valour. It is not valour. It is violence.”
The pain is so intense, “State-sanctioned violence against our own people. Siddharth was engaged, ten days before the accident. He was building his life. And we gave him a coffin in the name of the cockpit. I don’t want your condolences… don’t salute their coffins and forget them in next week’s headlines… they deserved better than this. We owe them better…”
It must be said that six fighter jets of the Indian Air Force have crashed in the last one year. In a report of the Standing Committee of Parliament in December 2024, it was told that between the year 2017 to 2022, a total of 35 fighter jets, combat helicopters and transport aircraft crashed, out of which 54 percent of these crashes were not due to any technical fault but due to the mistake of the pilot or any other officer, human error. The government had also told in Parliament that now such accidents are happening very less in India and where earlier it was 0.9 per 10 thousand flying hours, now it has come down to 0.2 from 2020 to 2024. Now, looking at this figure, those who speak in support of the IAF and the Government of India can definitely say that the government is doing its job. The decrease in incidents clearly shows how strong attention is being given to this in India. But the subject is not so simple ,not to lower its importance! Because India continues to lose its best pilots in these accidents.
It is indeed quite incomprehensible why the Indian Air Force still relies on the 1970s-vintage Jaguar fighter jets. Around 120 Jaguars are still in the IAF fleet, even though the world has phased out older aircraft of this class decades ago. It is true that the Jaguar was once designed for fast, low-altitude missions. It played a vital role in reconnaissance and surveillance during the Indian Peace Keeping Force mission in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990. It also proved to be successful in performing its job as the main delivery platform during the period when India’s nuclear power was taking shape. At the same time, the Jaguar was carrying out precision bombing in high and difficult terrain during the 1999 Kargil war. Apart from this, Jaguar remained the backbone of India’s nuclear strike force until the arrival of Prithvi-II missile in the year 2003, but it is also true that it is proving to be completely weak in comparison to today’s modern stealth fighter jets. Its low flying capability, which was once its strength, has now lost its effectiveness in front of the enemy’s advanced radar technology. Therefore, we have to accept that the technology of Jaguar has now become outdated and its capabilities are not able to meet India’s defense needs, but are causing the loss of its promising pilots. Therefore, it would be better if the Indian government pays serious attention to this issue and retires all such old technology aircraft from the Indian Air Force and replaces it with advanced technology aircraft.
In fact, today it would be right to say that this is not the pain of any one mother who has lost her son in a plane crash, but it is the pain of every Indian who loves his country and his brave soldiers immensely. Now, the sooner the government understands this, the better it will be for saving our young pilots of IAF. Then we can say – Touching Sky with Glory not flying with gloom!!!
