Indian Air Force lost 30 fighter aircraft, 10 choppers in three years
Indian Air Force (IAF) has lost a total 30 fighter aircraft and 10 helicopters in crashes in last
three years which left 26 defence personnel including 13 pilots dead, government told the Lok
Sabha today.
In written reply to a question on incidents of air crashes in IAF, Defence Minister A K Antony
said, "During the last three years, from 2008-09 to 2010-11, 30 fighter aircraft and 10 helicopters
of Indian Air Force (IAF) have crashed."
Antony informed the House that these crashes include 16 fighter aircraft of the MiG-21 series.
"26 defence personnel including 13 pilots have lost their lives (in these crashes). In addition six
civilians have also lost their lives," he said.
Underlining that all aircraft accidents in IAF are thoroughly investigated by a Court of Inquiry (Col) to
ascertain their cause, he said, "Main causes for the above accidents were Human Error (HE) and
Technical Defect (TD)."
Antony said a multi-disciplined study team has been formed by the IAF to review the reasons for such
crashes.
Denying that inexperience of pilots is one of the major reasons for these accidents, Antony said steps
have been taken by government to train pilots to prevent accidents due to human error.
Some of the measures to improve training of pilots include use of simulators to practise procedures and
emergency actions, focused and realistic training with additional emphasis on the critical aspects of
mission, introduction of Crew Resource Management and Operational Risk Management.
On phasing out the MiG-21 aircraft, he said, "Decision to phase out aircraft is taken on various
factors including their residual life and operational considerations and is reviewed by the
government from time to time. This is a continuous process."
The MiG-21 Curse Continues
India lost another MiG-21 fighter, the fifth to have crashed this year. That's over 71 percent of
Indian warplanes lost this year. Over the last half century, India has bought 976 MiG-21s, and over half
are gone, mostly because of accidents. While India was something of an extreme case in this area (other
users don't fly their MiG-21s as much), it's been typical of MiG aircraft. All this is part of the decline of
the once feared, and admired, MiG combat aircraft. Starting in World War II (the MiG-1 entered service
in 1940), through the Korean War (the MiG-15 jet fighter) and the Cold War (the
MiG-17/19/21/23/27/29), MiGs comprised the bulk of the jet fighters in communist, and Indian, air
forces. But after the Cold War ended in 1991, the flaws of the MiG aircraft (poor quality control and
reliability, difficult to fly) caught up with users, in a big way. In the last few years, most of the bad news
about military aircraft reliability, accidents and crashes has involved MiG products.
For example, last year, all Indian MiG-27s were grounded for four months because of suspected
common mechanical problems. Within a month of the MiG-27s being allowed to fly again, another one
crashed. The four month grounding was caused by fears that all the Russian made engines in these
aircraft might have a common problem. These fears are not new. The MiG-27 and Cold War era Russian
warplanes in general, do not age well. India only has about a hundred MiG-27s still operational, and all
of them were grounded for over a year (2005-6) when serious problems were discovered with the
MiG-27's Russian designed engines.
Two years ago, India decided to retire 60 percent of its 250 MiG-21 fighters within two years. The
only ones remaining will be the upgraded MiG-21bis models. In the last four years, India believed it had
cleared up many of the reliability problems with the MiG-21. Actually, they have, but the MiG-21 remains
a dangerous aircraft to operate. For that reason, India also plans to bar less experienced pilots from
flying the MiG-21.
When consulted about the high MiG-21 accident rate, Russia pointed out that India had insisted on
manufacturing many of the spare parts needed to keep MiG-21s operational, and many of these parts
were not manufactured to Russian specifications. While Russia does not have a reputation for making the
highest quality equipment, their standards are often higher than India's. It's no secret that much of the
military equipment made in India is pretty shabby by world standards.
Most of the pilots lost in these MiG-21 accidents were new pilots, which pointed out another
problem. India has long put off buying jet trainers. New pilots go straight from propeller driven
trainer aircraft, 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. That, in addition to it being an aircraft dependent on one, low
quality, engine, makes it more understandable why so many MiGs were lost. And a lot were lost.
The Indian MiG-21 problems were believed overcome by 2006, a year in which no MiG-21s were
lost. India improved maintenance, spare parts quality and pilot training to the point that the aircraft was
no longer considered the most dangerous fighter to fly. But they were more expensive to keep in safe
flying condition. India has reduced its military aircraft crash rate by over fifty percent in the last decade,
but the older MiGs are still seen as dangerous to fly, and they often are.
The Indian problems with MiGs were not unique. Inadequate maintenance and poorly trained pilots
have been the cause of about half the lost MiGs. But India has it worst because they train their pilots to
Western standards using Russian aircraft that were not designed to be used that heavily in peacetime.
Wh ile the MiG-21s and the MiG 23/27 aircraft are distinctly different designs, all are difficult to
fly and maintain. Over the last few years, all Indian MiG-23s were retired because of reliability and
safety problems. The reason is simple, the aircraft are too expensive to maintain and too dangerous to
fly. But India was not the only one, besides the Russians, who had problems with Russian made
warplanes. During the Cold War, the U.S. had several dozen Russian aircraft they used for training their
fighter pilots. Despite energetic efforts to keep these aircraft flying, their accident rate was 100 per
100,000 flying hours.
That's very high by U.S. standards. The new F-22 has an accident rate is about 6 per 100,000 hours,
mainly because it's new. F-15s and F-16s have an accident rate of 3-4 per 100,000 flight hours. India,
using mostly Russian aircraft, has an accident rate of 6-7 per 100,000 hours flown (compared to 4-5 for
all NATO air forces.) The B-52 has the lowest accident rate of (less than 1.5 per 100,000 flying hours) of
all American heavy bombers. The B-1s rate is 3.48. Compared to the supersonic B-1 and high-tech B-2,
the B-52 is a flying truck. Thus the B-52, despite its age, was the cheapest, safest and most reliable way
to deliver smart bombs.
Combat aircraft have, for decades, been getting more reliable, even as they became more
complex. For example, in the early 1950s, the U.S. F-89 fighter had 383 accidents per 100,000
flying hours. A decade later, the rate was in the 20s for a new generation of aircraft. At the time, the
F-4, which served into the 1990s, had a rate of under 5 per 100,000 hours. Combat aircraft have gotten
more reliable and easier to maintain, despite growing complexity, for the same reason automobiles have.
Better engineering, and more sensors built into equipment, makes it easier for the user and maintenance
personnel to detect potential problems. Aircraft used the computerized maintenance systems, currently
common on new aircraft, long before automobiles got them. Unless you have a much older car that still
runs, or a real good memory, you don't notice the enormous increase in automobile reliability. But older
pilots remember, because such changes are a matter of life and death if you make your living driving an
aircraft. And commanders know that safer aircraft means more aircraft to use in combat, and more
aircraft that can survive combat damage and keep fighting.
The MiG-29 was supposed to have solved a lot of the quality and reliability problems of earlier
MiG aircraft. But this was not the case. The MiG-29 crashed a lot, and was much more expensive to
maintain, especially compared to contemporary Russian fighters like the Su-27. For decades Sukhoi was
the second largest Russian military aircraft supplier, and after the Cold War ended, Sukhoi aircraft
became the most common. The MiG aircraft appear to be at the end of the line.
