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The Indian Air Force has begun investigating why two MiG-21 fighters fitted with the R25 engine crashed in the last month after midair flameouts.
As a precaution, it has also grounded all planes flying with R25 engines, which means six squadrons of the MiG-21 BIS Type 75 fighters.
But Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy, chief of air staff, told reporters that the grounded fighters would remains "operationally available" and the decision would not affect India's aggressive military build-up along the border with Pakistan.
While the IAF chief refused to divulge the number of fighters that would remain grounded, it is expected to be a little less than 100. India produced about 250 Type 75 planes starting from the late 1970s to the early 1990s.
Preliminary investigations into Friday's crash in Jalandhar found that the fighter's engine suffered a flameout and refused to restart, forcing the pilot and co-pilot to eject. The plane crashed into a commercial area, killing at least eight persons.
A couple of weeks ago, Squadron Leader Bundela was forced to eject from his MiG-21 after its engine failed to restart. He is recuperating in the Pune military hospital.
Air Chief Marshal Krishnaswamy said India has "enormous expertise on the engine and components" of MiG-21 fighters and the entire problem would be examined. The IAF has recovered the aircraft's black box from the Jalandhar crash site and sent it for analysis. The inquiry would end in 10 days and the Type 75 fighters would resume their training schedules thereafter, he added.
One squadron of MiG-21 BIS fighters, which was recently upgraded, has not been grounded as "we treat them as brand-new", he said. The upgraded fighters have better avionics, improved gearboxes and better flight equipment, though the same R25 engine.
The airframe of the MiG-21 BIS Type 75 has a life of 30 years or 2,685 hours of flying. But the most an IAF plane of this type has flown is around 1,700 hours, the air chief said.
"MiG-21 as an aircraft will continue to fly," he insisted, arguing that its airframe and overall performance make it a competent modern warplane and citing the example of the American B-52 bomber, which was designed more than four decades ago and even saw action in the war on terrorism.
According to the IAF chief, the fighter that crashed on Friday took off from the Adampur air base in the morning and was "transiting on exercise" from one training area to another. It was at an altitude of about 2km when the engine failed. "The pilot tried to restart the engine, but failed," Air Chief Marshal Krishnaswamy said. "He then ejected to safety."
Other than the Type 75 planes, the IAF has Type 96 and Type 77 variants of the MiG-21, which user the R11 and R13 engines, respectively. But the MiG-21, seasoned pilots admit, is an unforgiving aircraft. Because it has just one engine and in view of its high accident rate, the aircraft has been kept out of all ceremonial flypasts, including the Republic Day parades in New Delhi, for many years now.
The IAF is now grappling with a crisis in its fleet, which the chief admits can affect his pilots' morale. In the Northeast, the force is flying helicopters with huge magnets over the thick jungles along the border with Bhutan, looking for another MiG-21 that went missing towards the end of April.
The IAF chief said the pilot of that particular fighter seemed to have been "disoriented" when the plane crashed, but entries showed that the plane suffered from no technical problems. The Indian and Bhutanese armies are assisting the IAF in searching for the missing fighter and crew.
ALSO SEE: 8 killed, 12 injured as MiG crashes into Jalandhar building IAF suspends flight training on MiG-21 variant
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