Frequent air accidents in India expose fragile air defence

ISLAMABAD: As many as 31 Indian military personnel, including serving senior most four-star general, were killed and 20 others were injured in 15 air accidents during the last five years. The statement in this regard was made in Indian Parliament’s lower house (Lok Sabha) on Friday.

Two weeks ago, the Indian government conceded in the same house that its seven aircraft, including one most sophisticated Mirage-2000 of the IAF, had crashed in the last two years. The Mirage-2000 is one of the most sophisticated aircraft of the fourth-generation plane.

However, the Indian government didn’t mention the aircraft shot down by the Pakistan Air Force in February 2019 over skies of Kashmir and his pilot Wing Commander Abhi Nandhan was captured by Pakistan.

Indian state minister for defence Ajay Bhatt, replying to a question told Lok Sabha, that every aircraft accident in the IAF was investigated by a separate court of inquiry. The minister said that the court of inquiry was ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident and the recommendations of the investigations were implemented.

He said that the steps taken by the government to avoid such incidents in the future included invigoration of aerospace safety organisation, maintaining a database of accidents and incidents, improving training methodology and increased use of simulators.

Strangely, the Indian Defence Ministry came up with sketchy figures of their losses but the members of the parliament were free to ask any question about such accidents. The death of India's Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat and his wife in MI-17 V5 chopper crash on December 8 has once again brought to the light the frequent air accidents involving military aircraft in India.

Five crashes have occurred in the current year. Over the past five years, India had lost 34 aircraft, mostly Russian-made MiG planes, and seven helicopters in different accidents. The Russian MiGs in the IAF were termed as flying coffin by the force personnel.

Replying to a question in Indian parliament in March 2020, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said from 2016 to 2019, the country had lost 25 aircraft and four helicopters. The planes which met accident included 10 MiGs, three Sukhoi multirole fighter aircraft, four Jaguar jets, two transport planes and six trainer aircraft.

Over the past two years from 2020 to 2021, India lost another nine aircraft and seven helicopters, according to data available through independent sources.

In 2013, then Defense Minister A.K. Antony said that since 1963, as many as 482 MiG-21s had been involved in accidents, leading to the death of 171 pilots, 39 civilians, and eight personnel from other services. According to the database of an aviation website, there have been 58 aviation accidents since 2016 involving all arms of the military, IAF, Navy, Army, and Coast Guard.

A day after the 2019 Balakot airstrike when Indian warplanes crossed the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed Kashmir region and reached over settled area of Pakistan Balakot city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province without inflicting any damage, an Indian Air Force helicopter crashed in the Budgam district of Kashmir. Three people, including two pilots, were killed in the crash.

An inquiry later claimed that the helicopter was targeted in friendly fire. In 2004, India’s Defense Ministry constituted an expert committee to identify the root cause of aircraft accidents and to prepare a comprehensive action plan.

The committee, which finalized its report in May 2005, recommended a revamp of the Aerospace Safety Organization and executive independence of the Aerospace Safety Branch. According to the ministry, the training methodology of aircrew and technicians has been reviewed since then to minimize accidents with the induction of new basic trainers and advanced jet trainer planes. The aviation psychology module is being further tested to check human errors in accidents.