Spatial disorientation. Two words and the entire blame of a young pilot’s death was shifted onto his own shoulders.
When 27-year-old Flight Lieutenant Abhijit Gadgil was called to fly in place of another pilot on September 21, 2001 and lead the ‘night formation’ exercise, he had no premonition about what would happen on that fateful night in Sutagarh, Rajasthan.
“He took off in his MiG-21 and within a few seconds, his aircraft nose-dived into the sands of the dark area ahead. The total flight time was 33 seconds. All over,” recalls Captain Anil Gadgil, Abhijit’s father, while speaking to The Better India.
“And with this, our whole world turned upside down,” he adds.
Abhijit’s death was a massive blow to the Gadgils and to add to their misery, their son was blamed for the crash that had cost him his life.
The bereaved parents refused to accept that their son’s death was due to his own fault. A three-year fight with the authorities followed, and it finally led to them finding out that the ‘spatial disorientation’ (the inability of a pilot to determine his position, location, and motion in relation to their environment) which caused his death, may have been triggered by a ‘technical malfunction’ in the plane.
The media calls them the “flying coffins” and the MiG-21 have earned this reputation in the aviation industry due to a series of crashes that have claimed more than 200 lives. The Gadgils actively stay away from this name but in the case of Abhijit as well, a technical issue resulted in the crash, just seconds after take off.
Captain Anil and his wife, Kavita, were determined to fight, not just for their son but for all those pilots who have lost their lives due to faults in the MiG-21 aircraft.
Captain Anil is an IAF veteran who had served as a Wing Commander. He was a part of the Bangladeshi liberation and retired in 1985 after 20 years of service to join Air India as a pilot. He held this position for 20 years.
Kavita had always been the driving force behind Abhijit and Anil, and in the year 2002, she became a crusader demanding justice.
“Kavita came into the spotlight in 2002 as the grieving mother who refused to accept that scores of young pilots like her son were dying in horrific MiG-21 plane crashes in a peacetime environment,” Anil says.
“She submitted a memorandum to the then defence minister, the Late Mr George Fernandes, raising questions on the alarming rate of the fatal accidents of these aircraft and the letter from the Air Force blaming Abhijit’s ‘spatial disorientation’ for his MiG-21 crash.”
It took their persistent efforts for the IAF to concede in a letter that, the ‘spatial disorientation’ might have been the result of a technical malfunction in the aircraft, and that Flt Lt Abhijit would not be blamed for the crash. The President also assured them that a positive trend of MiG safety would be taken up as a serious cause.
05/02/19 Tanvi Patel/Better India
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When 27-year-old Flight Lieutenant Abhijit Gadgil was called to fly in place of another pilot on September 21, 2001 and lead the ‘night formation’ exercise, he had no premonition about what would happen on that fateful night in Sutagarh, Rajasthan.
“He took off in his MiG-21 and within a few seconds, his aircraft nose-dived into the sands of the dark area ahead. The total flight time was 33 seconds. All over,” recalls Captain Anil Gadgil, Abhijit’s father, while speaking to The Better India.
“And with this, our whole world turned upside down,” he adds.
Abhijit’s death was a massive blow to the Gadgils and to add to their misery, their son was blamed for the crash that had cost him his life.
The bereaved parents refused to accept that their son’s death was due to his own fault. A three-year fight with the authorities followed, and it finally led to them finding out that the ‘spatial disorientation’ (the inability of a pilot to determine his position, location, and motion in relation to their environment) which caused his death, may have been triggered by a ‘technical malfunction’ in the plane.
The media calls them the “flying coffins” and the MiG-21 have earned this reputation in the aviation industry due to a series of crashes that have claimed more than 200 lives. The Gadgils actively stay away from this name but in the case of Abhijit as well, a technical issue resulted in the crash, just seconds after take off.
Captain Anil and his wife, Kavita, were determined to fight, not just for their son but for all those pilots who have lost their lives due to faults in the MiG-21 aircraft.
Captain Anil is an IAF veteran who had served as a Wing Commander. He was a part of the Bangladeshi liberation and retired in 1985 after 20 years of service to join Air India as a pilot. He held this position for 20 years.
Kavita had always been the driving force behind Abhijit and Anil, and in the year 2002, she became a crusader demanding justice.
“Kavita came into the spotlight in 2002 as the grieving mother who refused to accept that scores of young pilots like her son were dying in horrific MiG-21 plane crashes in a peacetime environment,” Anil says.
“She submitted a memorandum to the then defence minister, the Late Mr George Fernandes, raising questions on the alarming rate of the fatal accidents of these aircraft and the letter from the Air Force blaming Abhijit’s ‘spatial disorientation’ for his MiG-21 crash.”
It took their persistent efforts for the IAF to concede in a letter that, the ‘spatial disorientation’ might have been the result of a technical malfunction in the aircraft, and that Flt Lt Abhijit would not be blamed for the crash. The President also assured them that a positive trend of MiG safety would be taken up as a serious cause.
05/02/19 Tanvi Patel/Better India
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