'Flying coffin': India to retire MiG-21 jets after six decades in service

• Decommissioning ceremony set for Sept 19 in Chandigarh.
• Over 400 MiG-21s lost in crashes since 1963 induction.
• Indigenous Tejas jets to replace phased-out MiG-21 fleet.
  

India will formally retire its remaining MiG-21 fighter jets in September, bringing an end to the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) longest-serving and most controversial aircraft fleet.

According to the Indian Express report, the last two MiG-21 Bison squadrons will be decommissioned at a ceremonial event scheduled for September 19 at the Chandigarh airbase. The move comes after nearly six decades of service, during which the Soviet-origin jets formed the backbone of the IAF.

First inducted in 1963, India acquired over 700 MiG-21s of various models, including the Type-77, Type-96, BIS and the upgraded Bison version.

The MiG-21 earned the nickname "flying coffin" after a series of crashes, with estimates suggesting over 400 jets have been lost, resulting in the deaths of more than 100 pilots and civilians.

Notably, in May 2023, a MiG-21 crashed near Rajasthan’s Suratgarh during a training sortie, killing three civilians. A year earlier, a crash claimed the lives of two senior IAF officers.

The fleet's vulnerability was exposed during a Pakistan-India standoff in February 2019, when a MiG-21 flown by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was shot down by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF).

The phasing out of the MiG-21 was originally planned to conclude by 2022 but faced delays due to the slow induction of replacement jets. The indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas is now expected to fill the gap left by the retirement.