"The president has given an appointment to meet these people Tuesday," said a spokesman for Kalam.

News reports ahead of the meeting said the relatives may press Kalam, who is the commander of India's armed forces, to ground the MiGs which have been involved in a number of crashes over the years.

Official figures show at least 221 MiGs, worth tens of millions of dollars, were lost in crashes between 1991 and 2000, killing about 100 pilots.

Last week, Defence Minister Fernandes took up a challenge from an MP to fly in a MiG-21 to dispel doubts about their airworthiness.

Newspaper editorials on Fernandes' much publicised flight said grounding the MiGs - which form the backbone of Indian Air Force (IAF) squadrons and were first inducted in the 1950s -- was not a solution.

"Little do those who happily use the term "flying coffin" from the comfort and safety of air-conditioned offices realise ... (the aircraft) has a useful life to serve still," said The Indian Express.

"People happily seek replacing the 300-odd aircraft in service. This would cost the country upwards of 5,000 billion rupees at an average per unit cost of 40 million dollars -- that is, nearly eight times the annual defence budget," the paper said.

The Hindu newspaper said the age of the IAF fleet did "pose its share of problems but ... the frequent crashes are a result of a number of factors including pilot error, bird hits, and maintenance failures.

"The high incidence of pilot errors can only be a result of the inadequate training procedures ... The urgent need to improve training measures for pilots is something that experts have stressed time and again," the paper said.

Kalam, who is the architect of India's missile programme, headed a committee which probed air accidents involving military aircraft in the late 1990s.

His 1998 report made sweeping recommendations including demanding the immediate induction of advanced jet trainers to help rookie pilots graduate from subsonic to supersonic flying and the acquisition of "flight simulators" to upgrade training.

The panel had also called for an improvement in training standards of ground engineers and urged all agencies involved to ensure the acquisition of reliable spare parts for the aircraft.

But five years on, many of the recommendations are yet to be implemented.

WAR.WIRE