Parents turn grief into a mission for cub pilots’ safety

Flt Lt Abhijit Gadgil’s mother, whose struggle against MiGs forced the government to start phasing them out and inspired the block-buster movie ‘Rang De Basanti’, says all trainees at the family’s Pune institute are her “little Abhijits”.

IN PUNE Jeet Aerospace Institute, set up by Capt Anil Gadgil in Pune in memory of his son Flt Lt Abhijit Gadgil, who was killed in a MiG-21 crash in 2001, has won the prestigious Flight Simulation Medal 2018 awarded by the Royal Aeronautical Society, London.

While the news may have been lost in the haze of recent assembly elections and the controversial SC order on Rafale deal, the award is a recognition of a long struggle by Capt Anil Gadgil and his wife Kavita to wake the government up to the dangers posed to pilots’ life by the ageing fleet of MiGs that had earned the unfortunate monicker “flying coffins” in the late 1990s.

While Kavita Gadgil’s relentless campaign against MiGs led the then National Democratic Alliance government to start fixing/phasing out MiGs, Capt Anil Gadgil channeled his grief to set up Jeet Aerospace Institute on a piece of family land near Khadakwasla in 2006. The institute, which has India’s only mobile flight simulator, has since trained more than 460 pilots, a feat recognised by Royal Aeronautical Society.

Capt Gadgil is the first Indian to be honoured with the Flight Simulation Medal and he now stands in some august company –Wright Brothers were one of the earliest recipients of a medal from Royal Aeronautical Society.

The Gadgils, who returned to Pune last week from London, where Capt Gadgil was honoured, remember 2001 like it was yesterday. They could have easily let grief take over their lives. But the fact that those in power tried to portray the MiG crash that killed their son as an error on his part spurred the couple to launch a campaign that has made the skies safer for young pilots.

On an average, eight to ten MiGs crashed every year in the late 90s and early 2000. The Gadgils were not going to let their son take the rap for machines that were not fit to fly.


On July 26, 2003, Kavita famously broke the security cordon in Mumbai to handover a memorandum to the then Defence Minister George Fernandes raising questions over the alarming rate of fatal accidents involving MiG planes. Several newspapers ran the picture of Kavita thrusting the file – which also carried a letter from Air Force blaming Flt Lt Abhijit Gadgil’s “spatial disorientation” for his MiG-21 crash -- into the hands of Fernandes as he arrived to participate in a programme commemorating the Kargil Vijay Divas. It deeply embarrassed the government. She later also met the then President A P J Abdul Kalam, who promised to look into the issue.

In March 2005, Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi wrote to the Gadgils stating that while a court of inquiry had established spatial disorientation as the probable cause of the crash, it was triggered by a technical malfunction and that Flt Lt Abhijit Gadgil could not be blamed for it.

Though Tyagi’s letter brought a sense of closure to the family and the government began a programme to phase out MiGs, the Gadgils felt their good fight would not be complete if it did not establish something long-term. That is when the couple decided to establish Jeet Aerospace Institute.

Capt Anil Gadgil, a veteran of the Bangladesh liberation war who had joined Air-India after retirement, quit the national carrier in 2006 and began work on setting up Jeet Aerospace Institute. The couple felt it would be a perfect memorial for their son.

While the Indian government is yet to take note of Capt Gadgil’s effort, the Royal Aeronautical Society has recognised Jeet Aerospace Institute’s “significant long term contribution, in an international context, in the field of flight simulation.”

The citation says that “Captain Gadgil’s achievement is an inspiring illustration of how effective low-cost simulation can be in outreach and recruitment, particularly in a region where the potential growth of aviation is projected to outstrip the means of providing sufficient trained people to meet the demand.”

India is tipped to become the third largest aviation market in the world behind China and the US by 2020, and the demand for trained pilots far outstrips supply already.

But commercial considerations were never the focus for the Gadgils. “Anil still had about five years of service to go in Air India, but he decided that if he had to take Jeet Aerospace forward, he will have to do it when he still had the energy,” says Kavita, whose campaign against MiGs inspired the 2006 block-buster Rang De Basanti.


The Gadgils had a one-acre land parcel about 5 km from Khadakwasla Dam and 16 km from Pune city on Sinhagad Road. They set up a non-profit trust Abhijit Air Safety Foundation with scientist Dr R A Mashelkar and journalist Kumar Ketkar and set up Jeet Aerospace Institute under its aegis. They built a small house, couple of classrooms, and a hangar to station the mobile simulator.

“We approached Tata Motors donation committee with our idea of an indigenously built mobile simulator and they donated a 12-tonne truck chassis. Pune’s Arco Engineering built the truck, while the simulator was built by RealiSim company in Bengaluru as per Capt Gadgil’s specifications,” She said. NCP leader and the then Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel inaugurated the simulator on November 3, 2007. In 2008, the aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation approved the institute and licensed the courses.

Jeet Aerospace Institute offers four different courses for aspiring pilots including a “bridge” course which enables pilots to graduate to more advanced courses and airplanes. Capt Gadgil has used his 40 years of flying experience to put together the course material.

The project has cost nearly Rs 2 crore and most of the money has been raised by the Gadgils themselves. “My elder son Kedar donated Rs 25 lakh. For me, the young pilots who come from all over India are like my own Abhijit and we share strong emotional bonds with them even after they leave,” she said.

Apart from the regular courses, the Gadgils throw open the facility to anyone curious about flying. Students from nearby schools and colleges visit the institute to experience the simulator.

“The aviation sector in India is growing and trained pilots are in great demand. I wish I had built more such simulators, but our resources are limited. We can only hope that the simulator serves as a model and our government takes this forward by getting manufacturers interested in building indigenous simulators like ours,” said Capt Gadgil.