‘Flying coffin’ kills another young pilot

A 24-year-old fighter pilot was killed in a Mig-21 crash in Bikaner on Tuesday. Flying Officer Suraj Pillai was killed as his aircraft crashed into the Nal airfield in Bikaner.

He had been recently commissioned into the Indian Air Force and was undergoing training at a MiG Operational Fighter Training Unit when the accident occurred. Pillai is survived by his parents and a sister who is an air hostess with a private airlines.

According to IAF officials, Pillai was trying out “practice overshoot” when his aircraft crashed. The MiG-21 aircraft, has been labeled as the “flying coffin” by its detractors. It has seen over hundred crashes since its induction into the IAF in the mid-1960s.

A court of inquiry has been ordered by Air Force headquarters and all training activities on the MiG-21s have been stopped for the time being.