Families of some of the pilots killed in MiG-21 crashes on Tuesday met President A P J Abdul Kalam, the supreme commander of the armed forces, and appealed to him to ensure that country's soldiers were not killed by their 'own weapons'.

                            Fernandes takes to the sky

Emerging after a 30-minute meeting with Kalam, Kavita Gadgil and her husband Wing Commander (retired) Anil Gadgil, who has lost their son recently, told reporters that they had submitted a petition to Kalam for action to make 'flying safe'.

"We are not anti-Indian Air Force nor are we calling for grounding of the MiG-21 fleet. We know it is the backbone of our Air Force," Kavita said. "The MiG-21s at present are unsafe and we want the problems in the fighter aircraft to be solved."

"I would like to correct an impression that has been going around that we have asked for grounding of the MIG-21 aircraft because of series of accidents. I come from an air force family and my husband Wing Commander Anil Gadgil (retired) has the served the Indian air force. We are fully aware of the fact that a large fleet of the aircraft cannot be grounded overnight until it is replaced by another series of fighter jets," she added.

"The President gave us a patient hearing and read our petition and communications with IAF authorities," Kavita Gadgil, who has floated Abhijit Flying Foundation named after her dead pilot son, said.

Kalam, she said, had assured them that flight safety was receiving topmost priority in the IAF.

"We are sure the President is taking personal interest and this should send a strong signal," the Gadgils told newsmen.

The four-member delegation, apart from Kavita Gadgil and her husband, comprised her son Kedar Anil Gadgil and her brother Deepak Kulkarni. They had a thirty-five minute meeting with the President.

Kavita and her husband described Defence Minister George Fernandes' flight in a MiG-21 as a 'gimmick' saying 'one flight can't prove anything'.

They were also sore with IAF top brass for not adequately communicating with them on the reasons for the crash of their son's MiG 21 in September 2001.

Rebutting any move to wind up her newly floated organisation, Kavita said, "We would await the reply of our President to our petition.

She said during the meeting Kalam had told them of his keen desire to become a fighter pilot and how he had failed to make it past an entrance test as there was only nine vacancies and he was the 10th applicant.

She said the President had also told them that as part of IAF family they should feel proud of it.

When asked about her meeting with the defence minister George Fernandes, Kavita Gadgil said that she had told the defence minister that his single flight in the MIG-21 would not help in any manner.

"I told him that he should not undertake the flight because the entire Ambala station would be working round the clock on the particular jet that he was about to fly in. Besides he is being flown by an air force officer and Fernandes would not have any control over the aircraft and hence his flight would not prove anything," she added.

Complaining that IAF was facing a 'serious erosion' in its fighting capabilities due to avoidable accidents to its mainstay MiG 21 fighters, the Abhijit Flying Foundation said in the petition submitted to the President that the defence ministry 'should honestly accept that there are problems with MiGs, which need to be tackled on war footing'.

"IAF should also carry out a squadron by squadron audit of aircraft serviceability by an independent board of experts," the petition said.

The petition also demanded that IAF should immediately acquire high quality realistic flight simulators or send the pilots where these facilities are available.

The petition also demanded that modern safety equipment should be fitted on MiGs like Zero-Zero ejection seats, high quality reliable flight data recorder, and conduct a cost benefit analysis of cannibalisation of fleet to make sure that at least 50 per cent of MiG 21 fleet was fully flying fit, even at the cost of other 50 per cent.

They also demanded that IAF should as a top priority induct the much-delayed Advanced Jet Trainers and that all accident investigations should be more transparent and prevention oriented.

Maintaining that Air Chief S Krishnaswamy had sought to attribute most of the crashes to inexperienced pilots, the petition wondered in that case how would IAF stand up to demands of war involving modern technology.

The petition said that even during the limited conflict in Kargil the 'fighter aircraft and pilot losses came from old MiGs' wondering what would be the scenario in an all out war.

The petition concluded by reminding the supreme commander that in any fighter crash, it was not only the loss of pilot or aircraft, but also a loss of a member of family and friends.

"But when it continues unabated, it has the potential of causing serious erosion in public confidence," the petition said.