All air forces have accidents, but accounts of Indian warplanes crashing on training and sortie flights have become almost everyday news. The latest incident happened on 5th March, 2015, when a SEPECAT Jaguar crashed in Haryana state - the pilot surviving after ejecting for unspecified reasons, and earlier a MiG-21 jet crashed in Gujarat on 31st January 2015 which was preceded by a MiG-27 fighter jet crash on January 27, 2015 in Rajasthan.
The main culprit is these flyblown episodes are in large part Russian made planes and especially the vintage MiG-21's, which sadly is the backbone of India's fighter fleet. The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 was conceived and developed in the early 1950's by the erstwhile Soviet Union as an interceptor, in response to the more agile and sophisticated American fighter jets. The first prototype emerged in 1954. It is generally regarded as the most prolifically produced combat supersonic jet in aviation history and had the longest production run of any combat aircraft in the world, which began in 1959 to 1985 over all variants. The pedigree of this amazing jet is impeccable.
However, the MiG-21 which is the combat backbone of the IAF for decades has seen so many accidents that it earned the ignominious sobriquet of a "Flying Coffin". An astonishing 490 MiGs, and planes of other types have crashed over the last 20 years. While over 200 IAF pilots have lost their lives during the last two decades, deaths have declined sharply over the years. IAF also operates other MiG designs such as the MiG-29 & Mig-27 and has since retired the MiG-23 & Mig-25 fighters. The loss in terms of value of aircraft and service property is assessed to be several thousand crores. That is just pouring a lot of money down the drain.
What is wrong with the MiGs?
- Over the past 50 years, India has bought 976 MiG-21s, and over half of them are gone, mostly because of accidents. Other Air Force's don't fly the MiGs as much as India and ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union and with it the cold war, several flaws in the production process emerged such as poor quality control and reliability, tardy spares supply and difficulty in flying these jets caught up with the force. The once admired and feared combat jet was proving to be an expensive piece of liability.
- India has about a 100 MiG-27s still operational, and all of them were grounded in 2005-6 when serious problems were discovered with the MiG-27's Russian designed engines.
- While Russia does not have the reputation for making high quality equipment, they have insinuated India for poor quality production by the local industry and is not as per Russian specifications. Indian defence industry is largely controlled by state run units and it is no secret that much of the military equipment made is pretty shabby by world standards.
- The delay in developing or procuring trainer aircraft is another count that has to be factored. Rookie pilots go straight from propeller driven trainer aircraft such as the antiquated HAL HPT-32 Deepak, to high performance jets like the MiG-21. This is made worse by the fact that the MiG-21 has always been a tricky aircraft to fly especially with regard to its high speed landing.
- Though the Indian pilots are trained to exacting standards still the MiGs are not designed and built to be used on a regular basis during peacetime.
- The MiG-21, MiG-29 and the MiG 27 aircraft are distinctly different designs, all are difficult and dangerous to fly and expensive to maintain. Over the last few years, all Indian MiG-23s were retired because of reliability and safety problems.
Note the chronology of accidents of IAF aircraft crashes in the recent past:
- Jan 31, 2015: A MiG-21 fighter jet of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed near Bed village in Gujarat's Jamnagar district
- Jan 27, 2015: A MiG-27 fighter of the Indian Air Force crashed in Barmer on Tuesday, injuring a motorcyclist. The pilot ejected safely.
- Jan 22, 2014: A Jaguar combat jet crashed near Bholasar village in Rajasthan's Bikaner district. The pilot and co-pilot ejected safely. According to defence ministry, pilots detected a technical problem while landing at Nal airport in Bikaner and ejected.
- Oct 14, 2014: A Sukhoi-30 fighter jet of the Indian Air Force crashed at a village near Pune with both the pilots ejecting to safety.
- Oct 1, 2014: A Jaguar combat aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed while on a routine sortie from Bhuj air base but the pilot ejected safely.
- Mar 28, 2014: The US-made C-130J Super Hercules military transport aircraft crashed near Gwalior after it took off from Agra, killing all five people on board.
- Nov 8, 2013: A MiG-29 crashed near Jamnagar in Gujarat but the pilot ejected safely. The aircraft was on a routine sortie from the Jamnagar airbase.
- Jul 24, 2013: A MiG-29 fighter aircraft today crashed near Lalparda village in Gujarat's Jamnagar district. The pilot ejected safely.
- July 15, 2013: A MiG-21 Bison fighter aircraft crashed while landing at Uttarlai airbase in Rajasthan's Barmer district, killing the pilot. The aircraft had taken off from the airbase on a routine training sortie and crashed while landing.
- June 7, 2013: A MiG-21 aircraft crashed in Rajasthan's Barmer district, with the pilot ejecting safely. The aircraft took off from the Uttarlai airbase and was on a routine sortie. It crashed 40 km from Barmer.
- Feb 19, 2013: A Sukhoi SU-30 combat jet crashed in Rajasthan's Jaisalmer district but both the pilots ejected safely.
- Feb 12, 2013: A MiG-27 aircraft crashed in Rajasthan's Barmer district but the pilot ejected safely. The aircraft was on a routine training sortie when it crashed near Allawani Ki Dhani after taking off from Uttarlai airbase.
- Nov 30, 2012: A Jaguar aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed near Mangam in North Sikkim. The pilot bailed out safely.
