Tally reaches 33 as another Indian fighter jet crashes

LAHORE: At least 33 Indian Air Force planes have met accidents during the last five years or so since March 28, 2014, when a Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules had crashed near Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh State while on a training mission, killing all five on board and destroying the aircraft completely—reducing it to mere ashes.

These 33 crashes have claimed more than 50 lives, an exclusive research conducted by the “Jang Group and Geo Television Network” shows. AFP reported on Friday that an Indian fighter jet crashed in desert close to the border with Pakistan -- after collision with a bird, the air force said.

The ageing Russian-made MiG-21 jet, which crash with some regularity, was on a routine sortie in western Rajasthan state when Friday’s accident happened. The pilot ejected safely. “Initial inputs indicate the likely cause of accident as bird hit after takeoff,” the Indian Air Force said in a statement.

All global air forces meet accidents, but the stories of Indian warplanes crashing on training flights have become almost routine news, hence raising many questions about the quality of India’s flying equipment and the capabilities of the men controlling these machines.

The reasons for these frequent accidents include human errors (shoddy maintenance), outdated spares, obsolete air-frames and system malfunctioning etc.

In 2012, the-then Indian Defence Minister had told an astonished parliament that more than half the 872 MiGs it had purchased from Russia had been lost in accidents, at a cost of over 200 human lives. According to figures released by the Indian Ministry of Defence in March 2013, the Indian Air Force has been losing the equivalent of one fighter squadron (approximately 18 fighters) in accidents every two years.

Most of the Aircraft crashed in India are Russian Jets (Variants of MIG and Sukhoi), research shows. According to “Bharat Rakshak,” a website devoted to discussing India’s military affairs, the country has lost 264 Military Aircraft from 2000 to 2015.

The website, which was founded in 1997 by Indian military enthusiasts, had further stated that the 86-year old Indian Air Force has lost a total of 1,707 aircraft during combat and crashed incidents since February 20, 1933.

Recently, on March 8, 2019 (Friday), we heard the news of another Indian Air Force plane (a MiG 21) crashing while on routine patrol in Rajasthan. On February 27 this year, the Pakistan Air Force had shot down two Indian aircraft after they had violated Pakistani airspace over Azad Kashmir.

On January 28, 2019, the “Times of India” had given an account of 27 Indian Air Force crashes since 2015, calculating the human loss at 40.

This is what the “Times of India” had written on January 28 this year: “A MiG-27 fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed in an agriculture field in Jodhpur’s Banad area during a routine mission. The pilot ejected safely and no loss of life was reported. However, this is the fifth air crash this year for the Indian Air Force and the second involving a MiG fighter jet, none of which augurs well for the Indian Air Force.”

The prestigious media house had mentioned in its story bed that the Indian Air Force had lost six aircraft during 2015-16, another 10 in 2016-17, six more in 2017-18 and five in 2018-19.

But the 2018-19 estimates of “Times of India” did not include the three other planes lost between February 27 and March 8, 2019.

An October 2014 report of the “BBC News” had also made some interesting remarks after a Russian-made Sukhoi-30 in Indian Air Force’s fleet had crashed in eastern India, though both pilots had survived after ejecting for unspecified reasons.

The “BBC News” had stated: “All five crew died in March this year (2014) on a training flight in their US-made Hercules transport aircraft. The MiG jet in particular has become known as the “flying coffin” or the “widow maker”.