Hasten Court of inquiry into crashes: Antony to IAF

With over a dozen inquiries into the air crashes still pending the Defence Minister AK Antony on Monday directed the top brass of the Indian Air Force (IAF) to expedite the pending inquiries to minimize the possibility of future accidents.

The issues of air crashes come up at the Parliament’s Defence Consultative Committee as the IAF has lost 33 combat jets in the last four years. Twelve helicopters also crashed during this period. Thirty-five defence personnel, including 13 pilots, lost their lives in these crashes. 

Addressing a meeting of the Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry here Antony said even one accident is a matter of “serious concern”. Joint Committee comprising representatives of Ministry of Defence, IAF, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), Defence Research and Development Organisation and DG Acquisition has been constituted to monitor the implementation of the recommendations of the Court of Inquiry, he informed the committee.

“The joint committee will specially focus on Category-I aircraft accidents involving those in which the aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economical repair, or is missing or the cost of repair, excluding damage to aero-engines exceeds 50% of the total cost,” the Minister added. 

A one-time inspection of all helicopter detachments was also carried out in view of the fact that an unusually high number of accidents and incidents on helicopters occur, when they are operating away from their parent base. “These inspections resulted in highlighting several shortcomings. Action is being taken on these shortcomings on a priority basis,” Antony informed the committee.

The training standards of young fighter aircrew remain another area of concern. The IAF is procuring 75 Basic Trainer Aircraft and the first training course on the new trainer aircraft ‘Pilatus’ will commence in July 2013.

Antony said Plans to phase out equipment approaching redundancy are also in place and certain critical procurements have been fast-tracked.  “Non-upgraded MiG-27 and MiG-21 are being phased out progressively by March 2016 and March 2018 respectively,” said the Defence Minister.

The newly inducted Minister of State for Defence Jitendra Singh also attended the meeting.