Sukhois- Winging it on safety

New Delhi, October 15: The frontline fighter jets of the Indian Air Force (IAF), Russian-built Sukhoi Su-30MKI seem to be facing quality control issues. In the past couple of years, the jets have suffered many technical snags like bursting of canopy in mid-air and failure of the ‘fly by wire’ system, which has replaced hydraulic controls by digital systems on modern jets.

Had it not been for the alertness of the pilots the incidents could have ended in an accident just like the first crash of this “air dominance” fighter jets on April 30, 2009 followed by another one on November 31 the same year.

The aircraft which was inducted into the force in 2002 has been the most potent aircraft of the force and has since been deployed on western and eastern frontiers.

According to sources, in an incident in October 2009 an aircraft, participating in Air Force Day fly past over Hindon (in Uttar Pradesh), got a warning of ‘fly by wire’ just after takeoff. Immediately the controls became “sluggish” and the aircraft started “pitching up”.

“During recovery and the most critical part of the flight- during the approach and landing, the aircraft experience continuous oscillations and was pitching up viciously, nearing a state of uncontrolled flight,” the official added.

Post flight inspection revealed multiple failures of the ‘Fly by Wire’ system, which has quadruple redundancy. This means that all parts of the system were backed up four times making it difficult for all of them to fail at once. Since the aircraft has avionics of non-Russian origins it has been facing integration problem since the beginning.

In another incident in March last year, the front canopy of Su-30MKI, in contact with Delhi area, burst opened. Due to this sudden blast, the noise level in the cockpit increased and the pilot was hit in his shoulder by Perspex. It also broke the pilot’s helmet visor resulting in “lacerations” on the pilot’s face. The pilot managed to land the aircraft even as he was not able to hear anything on his radio frequency.

In newly set up Tezpur air base another Su-30MKI was struck by lightning in 2009. The pilot managed to land the aircraft but it was rendered non-fly worthy.

Highly placed sources, indicate that Sukhois assembled at the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) have been facing several quality control issues. “We have been taking up the issues from time to time, but it will take some time,” the official added.

IAF has inducted 105 of the 230 twin - seater Sukhois -- primarily based in Pune and Bareilly at present -- contracted from Russia in three deals worth upwards of $8.5 billion.

HAL, in fact, has been directed to end the production of 140 of the original 230 jets under transfer of technology by 2015, instead of the originally scheduled 2017-2018. The IAF has placed orders for 40 more Sukhois from Russia.