IAF has lost 999 planes in crashes since 1970

[RPK]

IAF has lost 999 planes in crashes since 1970

IAF has lost 999 planes in crashes since 1970 - www.daily.bhaskar.com


New Delhi: The Indian Air Force (IAF) has lost 999 aircraft in crashes since 1970 and 39 percent of these accidents occurred due to pilot error, a parliamentary panel was informed by the defence ministry.

That would mean the IAF has so far lost around 1,000 planes, including the latest MiG-21 crash that was reported on Tuesday.

The IAF has also lost over 50 percent of its 946 MiG-series Soviet-origin fighter planes in air crashes.

"The ministry, in a written note, has furnished the accident data of the IAF since 1970. The data indicates that 999 aircraft have met with accidents so far," the committee's report on budgetary demands for grants 2011-12 submitted to the Lok Sabha Wednesday said.

Of the 999 accidents, 12 cases were currently under investigation. "Of the rest 987 cases, in as many as 388 cases the reason is human error by the air crew," the report said.

Another 39.5 percent air crashes took place due to technical defect in the aircraft and another 1.6 percent were due to servicing error on the aircraft. Only nine percent of the air crashes were caused by bird hit and even lesser 0.6 percent were caused by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) error.

In the case of MiG series aircraft, "as per information made available to the committee, 476 MiG aircraft so far have met with accidents and the remaining fleet is 470 MiG aircraft," the report said.

The high rate of accidents, the committee noted, was caused by technical defects pertaining to the old technology of the aircraft. India got its first supersonic combat jet, the Soviet-era MiG-21s, in early 1960s.

"Problems associated with vintage technology, especially aero engine met function, in MiG-21 and MiG-27 are more pronounced," the report said.

"There is a programme of phasing out and inducting new aircraft...these aeroplanes are 40 years old. They have been phased out of the Russian Air Force, like MiG-27. We are the only air force in the world which is flying this aircraft now," the defence secretary had informed the committee.

India is in the final stages of signing a $10.4 billion contract with either European consortium EADS for its Eurofighter Typhoons or French firm Dassault's Rafaels for supply of 126 medium multi-role combat jets for the IAF to replace the MiG-series planes.

 

[conworldus]

1 more? Please? Make it 1000!

Joke aside, that's a lot of crashes... almost one every two weeks.

 

[blackops]

you take a pilot from a crapy trainer and tell him to fly a supper sonic jet what better would you accept but why dont mig 29 mirrage 2000 su 30mki crash so much the reason they are not old while as why the mig 21 crashes they have done there duty stop using them now

 

[janon]

So more migs have crashed than the number of ones that havent crashed (so far).

 

[LiberalAtheist]

we should have never bought any MiG fighter except the MiG-29 rather than buying the MiG-21 we could have purchased the SU-11 or SU-15 and retired them sometime in the 90's poor planning, poor pilot training, and poor maintenance caused all this the MiG-27's and the ancient MiG-21's in active service today just need to go simple as that

 

[baker]

what.... Mig-21 was todays MKI in that era..... the problem is we are still using after its expiry date...

 

[LiberalAtheist]

what.... Mig-21 was todays MKI in that era..... the problem is we are still using after its expiry date...

yeah like 40 years ago the MiG-21's should have been retired in the 90's

 

[SQ8]

The mig-21 is not an easy aircraft to fly... even without the age it is unforgiving. with a high landing speed. and various aerodynamic quirks.

 

[LiberalAtheist]

The mig-21 is not an easy aircraft to fly... even without the age it is unforgiving. with a high landing speed. and various aerodynamic quirks.

it is a very difficult bird to handle indeed, for years we trained pilots without an AJT and sent them from the subsonic Kiran to the mach 2 capable MiG-21's old age plus lack of good training a poisonous combination indeed for any young pilot i can only feel sorry for the families who lost they're men in accidents because of poor planning poor maintenance and poor training by the IAF

even today we don't have a decent basic trainer and lack a good quantity of advanced jet trainers for a country who has one of the worlds largest defense budgets i find this shocking but the blame is on red tape in gov't and poor planning ,maintenance, and training by AF

 

[fatman17]

IAF has lost 999 planes in crashes since 1970

IAF has lost 999 planes in crashes since 1970 - www.daily.bhaskar.com


New Delhi: The Indian Air Force (IAF) has lost 999 aircraft in crashes since 1970 and 39 percent of these accidents occurred due to pilot error, a parliamentary panel was informed by the defence ministry.

That would mean the IAF has so far lost around 1,000 planes, including the latest MiG-21 crash that was reported on Tuesday.

The IAF has also lost over 50 percent of its 946 MiG-series Soviet-origin fighter planes in air crashes.

"The ministry, in a written note, has furnished the accident data of the IAF since 1970. The data indicates that 999 aircraft have met with accidents so far," the committee's report on budgetary demands for grants 2011-12 submitted to the Lok Sabha Wednesday said.

Of the 999 accidents, 12 cases were currently under investigation. "Of the rest 987 cases, in as many as 388 cases the reason is human error by the air crew," the report said.

Another 39.5 percent air crashes took place due to technical defect in the aircraft and another 1.6 percent were due to servicing error on the aircraft. Only nine percent of the air crashes were caused by bird hit and even lesser 0.6 percent were caused by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) error.

In the case of MiG series aircraft, "as per information made available to the committee, 476 MiG aircraft so far have met with accidents and the remaining fleet is 470 MiG aircraft," the report said.

The high rate of accidents, the committee noted, was caused by technical defects pertaining to the old technology of the aircraft. India got its first supersonic combat jet, the Soviet-era MiG-21s, in early 1960s.

"Problems associated with vintage technology, especially aero engine met function, in MiG-21 and MiG-27 are more pronounced," the report said.

"There is a programme of phasing out and inducting new aircraft...these aeroplanes are 40 years old. They have been phased out of the Russian Air Force, like MiG-27. We are the only air force in the world which is flying this aircraft now," the defence secretary had informed the committee.

India is in the final stages of signing a $10.4 billion contract with either European consortium EADS for its Eurofighter Typhoons or French firm Dassault's Rafaels for supply of 126 medium multi-role combat jets for the IAF to replace the MiG-series planes.

24.3 accidents / year and this is just the MiG series. what about war-time losses. are those included? does anyone have details about the attrition losses for other types?

 

[Lord Of Gondor]

@Sidhu-^^^Add to that we do not even have turbo-props now for training!
Effers @ MoD are taking too much time to replace the 35 year old Deepaks'!
Kiran too are old (30+ years) and the IJT Sitara is suffering from poor planning by HAL/ADA.

 

[Lord Of Gondor]

@Fatman 17-This website has not been updated to this year but has a good database
Warbirds of India - [Air Crash / Attrition Listings of the Indian Air Forces]
Website courtesy-Spark.

 

[Vibs]

24.3 accidents / year and this is just the MiG series. what about war-time losses. are those included? does anyone have details about the attrition losses for other types?

Can't give wartime losses.But here's an interesting read.

Flight Safety Analysis: 2007-2011


Post Aero India 2011 all eyes are now on multi-billion dollar tenders issued by the Ministry of Defence to procure 126 fighter aircraft’s and more than 400 light, heavy and attack helicopters. In this fanfare we often forget the main reasons why these tenders were floated. The 126 MMRCA tender was floated as a stop gap measure to sustain fleet strength depleted due to delay in LCA program and high rate of attrition amongst the forces. Indian military aviation has suffered 54 mishaps during the period 2007-2011(FY) resulting into many casualties. In this analysis we aim present the fact in simplified but detailed manner.



Forces wise analysis:

The air force as usual scores the most in mishaps. Plagued with old and obsolete aircrafts like MiG-21 and Mig-27 remain major contributors. Not just old but also upgraded variants of these two fighters have performed poorly in air safety. Indian Navy comes in second facing similar issues with old Sea Harriers. Of the 30 purchased in 1980’s only 11 remain. Indian Army has fared good primarily because of its smaller air arm. The only crash suffered by the Army was that of a Cheetah in February this year. However, if the Cheetah’s and Chetak’s aren’t replaced soon than we may see a rise in incidents. In all Army, Navy and Air force suffered 1, 10 & 42 mishaps respectively.

Type wise analysis:

Fighter aircrafts of the Indian Air Forces fared very poorly with 33 incidents. Again the MiG-21’s and MIg-27’s formed the bulk of losses. Also Indian Navy’s Sea Harrier suffered multiple crashes in 2007 and another in 2009. Of lately older helicopters i.e. the Cheetah and Chetak of both the Navy and Air force showing trends of increase in rate of attrition. Helicopters accounted for 16 mishaps during the period. The Transport fleet of the Air Forces proved to be very reliable with only 1 loss of an An-32 but this loss accounted for the single largest cause of death with 13 killed in the incident. Trainers and UAV’s crashed 4 times during the period.



Aircraft wise analysis:

A comparison of aircrafts contributing to most crashes show that the MiG-21 remains the “Flying Coffin” of the Air force and is followed by MiG-27. The efforts of IAF and authorities of MiG, HAL and ADA don’t seem to be working. Another major contributor is the helicopter fleet of Cheetah, Chetek, Kamov, Mi-8, Mi-17 & Mi-26 who contributed 17 crashes. The pride of the IAF the Su-30MKI has suffered two crashes but still remains one of the safest platform along with Jaguar and MiG-29. The Mirage-2000 suffered no losses during the period. Prior to the Limited Upgrade (LUSH) the Sea Harriers suffered 4 crashes. The MiG-21, MiG-27 and helicopters are areas where there needs to be work done.



Facts & Conclusion:

The armed forces of India have lost exactly 3 squadron strength worth of aircrafts over past four years of which more than 1 ½ squadron worth attributed to fighters and a further 1 squadron attributed to helicopters. Statistically, India losses approximately 1 aircraft per month excluding recoverable mishaps. Such a high rate of attrition is not seen in any other frontline military. Also the loss of life is tremendous with 50 deaths mostly that of military personals. Rapid progress needs to be made in air safety by India. Aircrafts like the MiG-21, MiG-27, Cheetah and Chetek needs to be replaced by safer indigenous aircrafts like the Tejas and Dhruv by increasing their annual serial production.

 

[LiberalAtheist]

@Sidhu-^^^Add to that we do not even have turbo-props now for training!
Effers @ MoD are taking too much time to replace the 35 year old Deepaks'!
Kiran too are old (30+ years) and the IJT Sitara is suffering from poor planning by HAL/ADA.

you would think HAL would be able to develop a basic trainer with ease since they have been able to develop Marut Ajeet Kiran Sitara etc

right now we have a 2 stage training process when it should be a minimum of at least 3 me personally i would have gone for 5 stage but 3 is the minimum

this is what happens when you have a lot of red tape un gov't IAF should have upgraded 120 MiG-21 to the Bison standard while the rest being phased out in the 90's they should have been able to buy a turbo prop trainer with ease MOD/CCS reviewing and having the final say only makes the process longer

 

[Lord Of Gondor]

Personally,I do not think that these things would stop.But I am happy with how the other A/C's are performing especially the Sukhoi's with just two crashes in fifteen years of service(1 due to bird strike and other due to pilot error) and M2K's with 8 crashes since 1983(?).The Fulcrum's also have fared well.Jags unfortunately have suffered immensely(extremely under powered).