IAF's appalling safety record

In January, an Indian Air Force MIG-29 crashed near Pune. The pilot, an air commodore, lost his life.

Five months later, an MIG-21 crashed in the Kashmir valley -- luckily the pilot managed to bail out.

On June 21, two MIGs collided over the Chabua air base in upper Assam. And the IAF lost two more of their men and machines.

The IAF's air accident rate is causing grave concern in defence circles. In the past three years, 28 pilots have been killed in crashes. The number of machines involved is even more.

Today, against an authorised establishment of 3,347 pilots, the IAF's actual strength (as on April 30,1997) is 2,884.

Defence ministry inquiries have conclusively established that human error, technical failure and bird hits (in that order) are the main culprits behind the accidents.

Besides the irreparable loss of human lives, the accidents have cost the IAF over Rs 7 billion at a very conservative estimate -- Rs 5 billion by way machines, and Rs 2 billion by way of manpower. (Training a fighter pilot costs Rs 52 million to the exchequer, a transport pilot Rs 17 million and a helicopter pilot, Rs 10 million.)

Staggering, isn't it? But the fact is that many of these accidents could have been prevented -- had the government introduced an advanced jet trainer, had technical defects like design deficiency, manufacturing, overhauling and material failure been taken care of, had the authorities worked on measures to reduce bird movements around the airport...

Had. But did not, despite quite a few high power committee's -- including the Abdul Kalam panel's -- recommending it.

The need for acquiring AJTs, for instance, had been pointed out as early as 1970 by the La Fontaine Committee. In 1984, the project was mooted, but it the government gave the go ahead only recently. Even now, the IAF hasn't got the AJTs.

"Fighter pilots have to play leapfrog while switching from the Kiran basic trainer to frontline fighters like the Jaguars and Mirage-2000. There are flying parameters and techniques which combat pilots can learn only with AJTs," seasoned veterans point out, "An IAF pilot who moves from Kiran jets -- which fly at 500 kilometres per hour -- to other combat aircraft -- capable of 1,000 kms per hour -- finds it difficult to adjust.''

However, Air Chief Marshal S K Sareen, chief of air staff, says the IAF's accident rate is on the decrease -- last year, it recorded just 19, the lowest ever. This is against the 22 accidents in 1993-94, the 25 in 1994-95 and the 28 in 1995-96.

Meanwhile, in its latest report on air accidents, the parliamentary committee on defence has urged the government to take urgent steps for inducting AJTs in a time bound manner. Further, it has strongly advocated implementing the air safety measures which the Abdul Kalam Committee had recommended.