Action plan to reduce IAF accidents by 50 per cent
The Abdul Kalam Committee on Fighter Aircraft Accidents has recommended a comprehensive action plan to reduce by half the Indian Air Force accident rate in the next 10 years.
The recommendations -- the details of which have not been publicised -- are contained in the Committee's report (which runs into four volumes) submitted to Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav by chairman A P J Abdul Kalam at the South Block on Wednesday.
Yadav complimented the Committee for an
indepth consideration of 'the crucial issue of
flight safety.' The plan will be initiated as soon as possible, he said.
Asked whether the report recommends the accquisition of advanced jet trainers, the minister said he had not had the time to go through the report.
The Committee, with members drawn from specialised fields, was constituted by the defence minister in February, following criticism about the IAF's poor safety record.
It held 14 meetings and visited a number of
IAF establishments to address the various factors causing accidents,
including human error, technical defects and bird-hits.
The accident rate had been threatening to snowball into a
major controversy as the force is understood to have lost 100
aircraft, including 59 fighter planes, since April 1993. In monetary terms, this amounts to a loss of around Rs 8 billion (the official figure is Rs 6.12 billion).
A total of 47 crew members, including 30 pilots, are said to have
lost their lives in these accidents.
However, the latest statistics indicate that the IAF's efforts at
bringing down the accident rate is paying off.
As compared to the 25 and 28
aircraft lost respectively in crashes during 1994-95 and
1995-96, the force lost 20 aircraft in 1996-97. This year, the number is six. This is despite the hefty increase in flying hours in fighter, transport and helicopter fleets.
The significant fall in accidents has been achieved by the
IAF's following a review of its air support and attack patterns,
taking into consideration the tactical conditions and aircraft
performance.
Besides, the manufacturers have been closely associated to avoid
recurrence of technical defects.
Steps have also been taken by the ministries of agriculture, urban affairs and employment and the state governments concerned for modernisation of slaughter houses and carcass utilisation centres and for sanitisation of areas around airfields
to reduce bird activities.
The IAF spends approximately Rs 56.8 million, Rs 24.8 million and Rs
16.8 million for training a pilot from the
fighter, transport and the helicopter streams respectively.
The La Fontaine Committee, constituted in 1982, had analysed 213
accidents of different categories during 1977-82. It had made recommendations covering major areas like training plan for personnel, establishment of
technical-type training school and inspectorate directorate.
The official position is that action on most of the
La Fontaine recommendations has been completed.
UNI
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