A day after Flight Lieutenant Advitiya Bal was killed along with another pilot in a MiG-21 trainer aircraft crash in Rajasthan, his family and relatives in Jammu on Friday appealed to defence minister Rajnath Singh to immediately ground the Soviet-era fighter jets.
“We appeal to the defence minister to immediately stop using MiG 21 fighter jets because they have already taken away so many lives,” the deceased’s uncle, Kamaljeet Bal, said.
“Please ground them immediately before another crash claims another life,” he added.
The 26-year-old was a resident of Jinder Mehlu village, close to the India-Pakistan border in RS Pura sector of Jammu district.
The other pilot who was killed in the crash in Rajasthan’s Barmer district on Thursday night was identified as Wing Commander Mohit Rana who hailed from Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi district. The incident took place around 9 pm on the outskirts of Bhimda village under Batoo police station area in the district.
“Thursday afternoon, I had asked him (Advitiya) over the phone to go to sleep because he had to go on a training sortie. Had I asked him not to go, he would have been alive today,” an inconsolable Praveen Bal, Advitiya’s mother, said.
{{/usCountry}}“Thursday afternoon, I had asked him (Advitiya) over the phone to go to sleep because he had to go on a training sortie. Had I asked him not to go, he would have been alive today,” an inconsolable Praveen Bal, Advitiya’s mother, said.
{{/usCountry}}Praveen recalled how her son was a simple person and never hurt anyone. “His nana (maternal grand-father) used to call him a sadhu (a saint). My son has gone… I don’t want to live anymore,” she said.
“We cannot believe what has happened to them,” a relative of Rana said.
Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur expressed grief over the deaths of the two pilots in the crash. He said their exemplary services to the nation would always be remembered.