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Govt denies purchase of second-hand spares for MiG-21s

Faced with a barrage of questions in the Rajya Sabha on the MiG-21 crashes, the government on Wednesday categorically denied the purchase of second-hand spares for the Russian fighters by the Indian Air Force.

Replying to a question Defence Minister George Fernandes said the IAF did purchase some reconditioned engines for the MiG-21s, but only after a thorough scrutiny by experts.

He also denied that the two MiG-21 aircraft, which crashed on the same day in September this year, was due to faulty spares.

"As per preliminary investigations the crashes were due to malfunction of main fuel pump and not due to spares," he told the house in a written reply.

Fernandes said that exact cause of the accidents were under joint investigations by specialists from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, IAF, Centre for Military Air Worthiness Certification and Director General Aeronautics Quality and Assurance.

Facing questions on the crashes for the second week running, the minister said since 1992-93, 110 MiG-21s have crashed.

He said 44 of these were due to technical defects, 43 due to human errors and 13 due to bird hits, adding that the accident rate in the current year had significantly gone down in comparison to previous years.

Asserting that safety of the fighter jets had never been in doubt, the defence minister said there was no proposal to phase out these aircraft, though those that had completed total technical life would be withdrawn.

PTI

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