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IAF, Navy blame each other for near-miss on R-Day

Josy Joseph in New Delhi

The miraculous escape of the Republic Day crowd, including India's top VVIPs, in New Delhi from a possible mid-air collision between the aircraft of the Indian Air Force and Navy has fuelled two independent investigations.

The Air Force and Navy blame each other for the lack of co-ordination that led to the near-miss.

A few hundred feet and sheer luck saved India from a disgraceful accident, a collision between a huge Ilyusion-76 and a massive Tupolev-142 M surveillance plane of the Indian Navy, above the VVIP enclosure on Rajpath.

The enclosure had, among others, President K R Narayanan, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, several Cabinet ministers and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.

A Big Boy formation led by an IL-76, the IAF's strategic transport aircraft, and comprising two AN-32s and two Dornier planes, and a formation of three Tupolev 142M (Albatross), long-range patrol and anti-submarine aircraft of the Indian Navy had the narrow escape on January 26.

Both the IAF and Navy are now conducting independent investigations.

According to sources, the difference between the air corridors of the IL-76 and TU-142 M were just 600 feet. With a few metres gap from the other formation, the naval aircraft lifted up and sped away, thus avoiding a collision.

The aircraft were right above the crowd, just a few metres from the VVIP enclosure.

Wing Commander S Raghavan commanded the Big Boy formation, while the TU-142M formation was led by Commander P K Sharma.

According to the original plan of the flypast, the closing splendour of the RD parade, the Big Boy formation was to be followed by the TU-142 M. The latter, which took off from Madras, was scheduled to land back there. Both the formations should have been separated by a minute during the flypast.

However, the TU-142 M formation overtook the IL-76-led aircraft above Rajpath, and sped away. The alertness of the naval pilots saved India from witnessing one of the most disastrous accidents ever in its history.

About 100,000 people had assembled to see the parade, besides a large number of VVIPs and security personnel.

Air Force sources claimed that the time gap between the formations was dangerously reduced by the failure on the part of the TU-142 pilots to inform the IAF traffic control in New Delhi.

Naval sources insisted that it was the responsibility of the traffic control in New Delhi to guide them.

Immediately after the near-miss, the naval aircraft were asked to land at Palam for debriefing.

Air Force and naval authorities have taken the statements of the pilots involved.

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