That is your problem. But, life is always full of ups and downs. You learn to overcome the set backs and build over through experience, or you find yourself in the chair in front of psycho-therapist.
The national security fallout from this is going to be terrible.
The fall out w.r.t. national security will be negligible so long his successor is competent one. Most likely Gen. Naravane being the senior most of the chiefs, will take over. He is a fine officer who has been successfully handling the Chinese threats for quite a while as well as has been spearheading all the changes envisioned by late Gen. Rawat in the primary military arm of India. So, we might have lost a visionary, but it is not as if he did not build the system that cannot successfully inherit his legacy.
The IAF cannot come back from this. Their reputation lies in tatters now. It also does not look good for them. Rawat openly criticized IAF for stalling reforms and now this. No matter the spin, things are headed downhill security wise.
IAF's image is hurt. But, forces don't work for images. They learn from a set back and rectify the mistakes to never repeat them. IAF is not going to run for any popularity contest anytime soon. So, a bit of lose of face isn't going to drown it.
There's nothing to spin. Yes, the actual reason might be hushed up from the public eyes, but those who need to know would know it. Security matters aren't supposed to be for general public's consumption anyway. That we have an interest in the matter doesn't preclude us to be in know how of everything.
It is obvious if there are heads to roll, the heads will roll. It is not IAF's fault any more than late CDS'es fault. It is an accident, as far as we are aware till now.
Unless you are trying to imply that IAF 'managed' the accident, IAF's image wouldn't hurt anymore than when the upgraded Mirage-2K crashed even with ace pilots on the stick.
I guess it always takes an extraordinary bloody nose to wake people up and this is one such thing. The corruption, nepotism, bad decision making have all caught up with the IAF. RIP IAF reputation.
I don't know about all the corruption and 'nepotism' that you are talking about. Like any institute in this whole bloody world, obviously IAF cannot be free of its own share of bad apples. But, how does it link to this accident is beyond me.
Every aircraft that flies in the air, risks falling down due to the law of physics. Our bad luck that CDS has become a victim of one such incident, but you cannot be sure when the fat lady will sing your name.