LAHORE: The Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopter crash on Wednesday, with Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat on board, marks the 294th recorded incident in almost 58 years since December 21, 1963, when the air arm of the Indian Armed Forces has encountered a deadly accident.
Till May 24, 2021, this number of fatal accidents involving Indian military's air machines had stood at 291. Meanwhile, General Rawat’s plane crash is the third incident in Pak-India military history when a high-profile official of Armed Forces has perished in an air calamity along with wife.
And this is the second incident of its kind in India when a top-ranking General has gone on to lose life with spouse in an aviation tragedy.
Research shows on May 7, 1993, an Indian military helicopter MI-8 had crashed in flames in the neighboring Bhutan, with a Muslim Indian Lt. General Jameel Mehmood was on board with his life partner.
According to the “Associated Press,” the Army commander of India’s eastern region and scion of a family that had deep roots in Army, Lt. General Jameel Mehmood, was on an official visit with wife seated next to him in the ill-fated chopper.
Remember, on February 20, 2003, the-then Pakistan Air Force chief, Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir, his wife and all the 16 others on board, had tasted painful death when their plane (PAF Fokker-27) had hit a mountain in fog near Kohat.
The Pakistani Air chief’s wife, Bilqis Mushaf Ali Mir, was the sister of the-then Major General (now late) Hussain Mehdi, the DG Rangers in Punjab at that time. The Chief of the Pakistan Air Staff was flying from Islamabad for an annual inspection of the Kohat Air Base.
Most recent Indian military disasters:
In recent past, a Mirage 2000 aircraft of the IAF had crashed in Madhya Pradesh on October 21, 2021, while a MiG-21 fighter aircraft had also hit the ground during a training mission in Rajasthan on August 25, 2021.
Poor IAF safety record since 2016 and the "flying coffins" tag:
According to the database of Bharat-Rakshak.com, an aviation website that works closely with the IAF, between 2016 and May 24, 2021, there had been 57 aviation accidents.
The website states that all the data displayed on its domain was publicly available in the Gazette of India, and published by the Indian Government.
These accidents involved all arms of the Indian military — the IAF, the Indian Navy, Indian Army and the country’s Coast Guards. These aviation disasters included the one flown by the-then Wing Commander, Abhinandan Varthaman, and was shot down by Pakistan in 2019. Overall, some 11 of these crashes between 2016 and May 2021 involved the MiG-21 variants.
In May 2021, a MiG-21 Bison had met the worst fate with Squadron Leader, Abhinav Choudhary, on board—igniting a debate if the Soviet-era aircraft were safe enough!
Some Indian defence analysts had dubbed these carriers as the ‘flying coffins.”
In March 2021, a MiG-21 Bison had crashed in Gwalior, killing Group Captain, Ashish Gupta, while another was reduced to ashes and debris after plunging in Rajasthan’s Suratgarh area in January, though the pilot had ejected safely. Few top-ranking lucky survivors hailing from Pakistani and Indian Armed Forces:
However, in India’s case, a few lucky Generals like Ranbir Singh had managed to dodge death on October 24, 2019, after his plane was forced to land in Poonch district of Indian-Held Kashmir.
General Ranbir was India's Northern Army Commander then.
Likewise, some-high profile Pakistani Generals like Sardar Farooq Shaukat Khan Lodi, had also survived air tragedies.
The-then Governor Balochistan, General Lodhi, was flying back to Quetta from Rawalpindi after attending a meeting with President Ziaul Haq, when a sandstorm had overwhelmed his Cessna plane in 1984.
We all know General Ziaul Haq himself was a victim of an August 1988 plane accident, that had also claimed lives of several top-raking Pakistan Army Generals and Brigadiers.
While both the pilots and his ADC died in this accident, General Lodi, who also served as Federal Interior Minister and Governor Punjab, had miraculously survived.
And we may all recall the sad October 8, 2007 event where President Musharraf’s spokesman, Major General (retired) Rashid Qureshi, had escaped with minor injuries when his chopper had crashed in Kashmir.
This helicopter was escorting President Pervez Musharraf. According to “Reuters,” four people, including two Army commandos from General Musharraf’s security, had lost lives.
Quoting Army spokesman, Major- General Waheed Arshad, the British news agency had stated: “The president’s spokesman, retired Major-General Rashid Qureshi, was among eight injured in the crash. The four killed included a brigadier, the two commandos, and a cameraman from state-run television.”
Air crashes in India since 1947:
As far as the overall air crashes in India since 1947 are concerned, the August 26, 2020 edition of “The Hindustan Times” had revealed that some 2,173 people had been killed in these air-related tragedies in more than seven decades.
The prestigious Indian newspaper had stated: “In terms of fatalities, 68% of 1,057 people who died in India between 1951 and 1980 died in accidents caused by pilot error, while 99% of 997 people who died between 1981 and 2010 died in accidents caused by pilot error. The analysis is based on data compiled by the Aviation Safety Network, a privately run initiative that keeps track of aviation accidents, incidents and hijackings. Of the 52 fatal accidents, 40 involved Indian airliners and 12 foreign airliners.”
The media outlet had gone on to write: “In 30 years between 1951 and 1980, there were 34 fatal air crashes; pilot error was a cause or contributing factor in 20 or nearly 59% of the accidents. In the next 30 years, between 1981 and 2010, there were 13 fatal air accidents and of them 12 or 92% were linked to pilot error. In terms of fatalities, 68% of 1,057 people who died in India between 1951 and 1980 died in accidents caused by pilot error, while 99% of 997 people who died between 1981 and 2010 died in accidents caused by pilot error. All put together, 80% or 1,740 of 2,173 people in India have died in accidents in which pilot error was either the cause or a contributory factor.”
The three deadliest air crashes in India’s aviation history:
On November 12, 1996, a mid-air collision-some 14,000 feet high in the skies over Haryana—had killed 349 on board a Saudi Arabian jumbo jet and a Kazak Airlines plane. This is also known as the worst mid-air collision in world history.
India’s second deadliest air accident had occurred on January 1, 1978, when an Air India flight had crashed in the sea near Mumbai shortly after take-off. All of the 213 people on board were killed.
The Mangalore air crash in 2010, killing 158 humans, became the third deadliest air crash in Indian aviation history.