Four years, 33 combat plane crashes, 27 MIGs lost

New Delhi: The Indian Air Force (IAF) lost 33 combat jets in the last four years, 27 of them MiGs of various variants, parliament was informed on Monday. Ten helicopters also crashed during this period.

Twenty-six defence personnel, including 13 pilots, lost their lives in these crashes, Defence Minister A.K. Antony told the Lok Sabha during question hour.

From April 1, 2008 to March 13 this year, 27 MiGs - 16 of them MiG-21s - three Sukhoi SU-30s, two Mirage-2000s and a Jaguar had crashed, he added.

Ten helicopters had also crashed during this perid.

Six civilians were also killed in the crashes.

"From 2008-09 to March 13, 2012, 33 fighter aircraft including a Jaguar, two Mirage-2000, three Sukhoi-30 and 27 MiG series aircraft (including 16 MiG-21 series) and 10 helicopters of IAF have crashed. In the above accidents, 26 defence personnel, including 13 pilots have lost their lives. In addition, six civilians have also lost their lives," Antony said.

He also noted that a majority of the accidents were on account of human error and technical defects.

Every IAF aircraft accident is thoroughly investigated by a court of inquiry (Col) to ascertain its cause of accident. Remedial measures are taken to prevent their recurrence in future, he added

"However, improvement of skills of pilots is a continuous process. Several steps have been taken by the government in this regard," Antony said.

These include increased use of simulators to practice 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 to enable safe mission launches, aviation psychology courses and introduction of aerospace safety capsules in the initial phases of training of aircrew.

"The decisions to phase out aircraft are taken based on various factors including residual life of the aircraft and operational considerations and is reviewed by the government from time to time. This is a continuous process," Antony added.