Indian Air Force finally apologizes to Mrs. Kavita Gadgil

The results of an internet search by the grieving mother of a MIG-21 pilot killed in a 2001 crash forced the IAF to finally admit that the young officer was not responsible for his own death.

Four years—and endless letters, emails and phone calls—after Flt Lt Abhijeet Gadgil died in a fiery crash, Kavita Gadgil (54) just got some kind of closure in the form of an apology from Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi.

Until now, the IAF said it shared Gadgil’s anguish but implied that a lack of flying skills claimed the life of Lt Gadgil in Rajasthan on September 17, 2001.

Worse, on behalf of the IAF, Air Marshal Ashok Goel wrote to Gadgil in March 2003, accusing her of carrying a ‘‘public tirade’’ which would ‘‘demoralise the force and would not be in the best interest of the nation’’.

But on March 23 this year—five days after an Air Marshal was flown to Mumbai from air headquarters in Delhi to apologise—Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi finally acknowledged in a letter to Gadgil that her son’s crash ‘‘may have been triggered by a trim malfunction’’. Tyagi also said the IAF was expunging Goel’s letter from its records.

In the end, the door Gadgil was looking for came from an internet search on spatial disorientation: it put her in touch with an IAF doctor on the panel of the crash inquiry.

A case study published by aviation medicine specialist, Wing Cdr (Dr) R Ravi in the Indian Journal of Aerospace Medicine quoted details of the crash, without naming the pilot: it was apparent pilot error was not the cause.

Armed with this evidence, Gadgil approached the air chief. Last week, the Air Marshal flew down to meet her.

‘‘But I wanted nothing less than an admission from the Chief,’’ said Gadgil, whose husband, a 20-year veteran of the IAF pilot, is about to retire from Air-India.

That admission came in the letter to the Gadgils: Tyagi expressed his condolences and regret.

‘‘He (Lt Gadgil) was a good member of the IAF, and his loss would be difficult to replace,’’ wrote the chief.

The apology is unprecedented, but for Gadgil it comes late.

‘‘How many Kavita Gadgils will have to stand up to be counted? Is it worth it?’’ asked Gadgil, whose determined, unwavering campaign against the MIG-21—157 pilots have died in more than 360 crashes since the 1970s—has taken her to President A P J Abdul Kalam.

‘‘I have put aside my pain all these years to reach the truth,’’ Gadgil said.

In February 2003, Gadgil first wrote to the Chief of Air Staff, asking why Abhijeet’s plane crashed. She was told the accident resulted from the pilot’s ‘‘spatial disorientation’’.

A spate of letters—the last in August 2004—and e-mails had no result. It was after she approached the National Human Rights Commision (NHRC) in December that the air chief wrote.

Gadgil said she is a staunch supporter of the IAF.

‘‘You can buy F16s, but you can’t buy the pilots,’’ she said. ‘‘We have such fine boys joining the force. So many more Abhijeets are still flying. But we need some transperancy. The Air Force has taught me many things. But we also have a right to ask the IAF: ‘what are you doing with our sons?’’