MiG-21 'a bird for all seasons', says Rajnath as IAF bids adieu
CHANDIGARH, Sept. 27 -- Group Captain Suresh Ratnaparkhi struggled to hold back tears as he sat in his wheelchair and stretched his hand out to touch a MiG-21 Bison that had just landed after its last operational sortie at the Chandigarh airbase where the Indian Air Force (IAF) on Friday decommissioned the last of its iconic Soviet-era fighter jets in a rousing send-off that evoked the aircraft's heady decades in service and how it shaped the country's air power.
"She was my beloved and I touched her for the last time," the 87-year-old former MiG-21 pilot said as India's longest-serving fighter jet retired after flying the Indian flag for 62 years.
Just moments earlier, Ratnaparkhi listened with rapt attention as defence minister Rajnath Si...
To read the full article or to get the complete feed from this publication, please
Contact Us.