New Delhi: The Indian Air Force on Thursday lost its sixth aircraft in a crash this year raising concerns over its safety standards.
Crashed in Assam, the young pilot fortunately survived. MiG account for roughly 2/3rds of all IAF crashes in the last five years.
Now here's the worrying thing:
- NDTV has learnt all the older MiGs have been upgraded in India
- Other aircraft are upgraded abroad
It gets worse:
NDTV has learnt that the Air Force has expressed reservations over the quality of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited's (HAL) work. Yet it has been forced to accept whatever service HAL's provides.
These frequent crashes are likely to prompt the Air Force to ask for a review.
This dangerous trend has renewed concerns and anger at why, despite a steadily rising defence budget we can't save our pilots.
The Air Force wanted 126 new fighters in 2001 to replace the old MiGs. Eight years later, the government hasn't even short-listed the manufacturers.
It took the government 20 years to get modern training aircraft, and this is why pilots are not optimistic.