Crashes of Fighter Air Planes

During the last three years (2008-2009 to 2010-2011) and the current year 2011-12 (up to 17.8.2011), a total of 26 fighter planes of Indian Air Force (IAF) had crashed. During the preceding three year period of 2005-06 to 2007-08, 20 IAF fighter planes had crashed. Year-wise details are given below:

During the last three years (2008-09 to 2010-11) and current year 2011-12 (upto17.8.2011), 26 fighter planes of the IAF crashed. The makes of these fighter planes were MiGs, Su-30 MKI and Jaguar. Six pilots were killed in these crashes.  This includes 2 MiG-21 aircrafts that crashed during take off.  Neither any pilot norservice personnel was killed in these MiG-21 accident.  Also, no civilian was killed in the MiG-21 crashes.

Compensation for loss of / damage to civilian property due to Indian Air Force Aircraft accidents is paid by the government as per extant rules.

Every IAF aircraft accident is thoroughly investigated by a Court of Inquiry (Col) to ascertain the cause of accident and remedial measures are taken accordingly to check their recurrence in future. Apart from this, IAF has taken various measures relating to invigoration of aviation safety organization, streamlining of accident/incident reporting procedure, analytical studies and quality audits of the aircraft fleets to identify vulnerable areas and institute remedial measures to reduce aircraft accidents. Ornithology cell, which carries out bird surveys at flying bases and suggests bird prevention modules, has been established at the Directorate of Flight Safety. All flying bases have been visited by senior Aviation safety personnel of the IAF to apprise and caution the operating units about the causes of the accidents and to get views towards enhancing aviation safety. Accident prevention programmes have been given an added thrust to identify risk prone/hazardous areas specific to the aircraft fleets and operational environment to ensure safe practices/procedures. Steps have also been taken by Government to train pilots to prevent accidents due to human error. These include increased use of simulators to practice procedures and emergency action, focused and realistic training with additional emphasis on the critical aspects of mission, introduction of Crew Resource Management and Operational Risk Management to enable safe mission launches, Aviation Psychology courses and introduction of Aerospace Safety capsules in the ab initiotraining of aircrew.

This information was given by Defence Minister Shri AK Antony in a written reply to  Shri K.N. Balagopal and Shri Mohan Singh in Rajya Sabha