Why IAF Chandigarh airbase holds special place in MiG-21’s journey: From No. 28 Squadron to No. 23 Squadron

Wg Cdr Dilbagh Singh (IAF archive)

When Air Chief Marshal A P Singh flies the final MiG-21 sortie with the call sign ‘Badal 3’, Chandigarh will end the chapter that started from this very place 60 years ago.

India saw its first non-Western aircraft in the IAF inventory when it decided to induct the now-legendary MiG-21s. A team of eight pilots, led by then Wing Commander Dilbagh Singh-who later went on to become Air Chief Marshal-undertook the training.

They reached Frunze, Kyrgyzstan on October 9, 1962, and then moved to Lungovaya, Kazakhstan for conversion training on the MiG-21.

Wing Commander Dilbagh Singh led the first MiG-21 Squadron, No. 28. Rightly named ‘First Supersonics’, Squadron No. 28 was raised in Chandigarh, which was then the capital of joint Punjab.

Six decades later, another Air Chief will fly the last sortie of No. 23 Squadron. With Friday’s ceremony, Chandigarh will mark both the beginning and the end of the MiG-21’s journey in India.

MiG 21 Retirement News Live: Majestic flypast and final sortie as MiG-21 retires from IAF, Chandigarh ceremony to begin shortly

The No. 28 Squadron, the first unit in the IAF to operate MiG-21 aircraft, was established in Chandigarh on March 2, 1963, under the command of Wing Commander Dilbagh Singh, who later rose to become Air Chief Marshal and Chief of Air Staff. At the time, Group Captain Trilok Nath Ghadiok, who had earlier formed the No. 44 Squadron in Chandigarh in April 1961, served as the Station Commander of Air Force Station Chandigarh.

The MiG-21s introduced at that time were the F-13 variant, an earlier model of the aircraft. Seven officers were selected by Air Headquarters to train in Russia on the new fighter, including Wing Commander Dilbagh Singh, Squadron Leaders MSD Wollen and S K Mehra, and Flight Lieutenants H S Gill, AK Mukherjee, Denzil Keelor, AK Sen, and BD Jayal. While Denzil Keelor had to discontinue his training due to medical reasons, MSD Wollen later succeeded Dilbagh Singh as the squadron’s Commanding Officer and led it during the 1965 India-Pakistan war.

In December 1963, Wollen and Mukherjee were involved in the first MiG-21 accident near Chandigarh when two aircraft collided mid-air while practicing for the 1964 Republic Day parade. Little did anyone know that over the coming decades, the MiG-21 and its variants would witness numerous crashes, tragically claiming the lives of hundreds of pilots, and earning the jet the grim nickname “The Flying Coffin.”

The initial six MiG-21s reached Chandigarh in April 1963, flown from the No. 2 Equipment Depot in Bombay (now Mumbai) via Agra. Originally shipped in a disassembled state, the aircraft were assembled by Soviet engineers and test-flown by their pilots before official induction.