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| Cheaper MIG trainers complicate matters | | IAF pilots are given old, second hand planes | |
B L KAK
NEW DELHI, NOV. 23: Indian defence authorities have come under a fierce attack for having made available old, second hand planes for the IAF pilots. The Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Ministry of Defence have been accused of quoting cheaper rates, and not the standards of airworthines, while purchasing jet aircraft.
In doing so, the defence authorities, according to experts, are reducing the Air Force to the level of a petty housewife, buying slightly spoilt potatoes because they are cheaper than the fresh variety. In the housewife's case her family is not placed at risk by consuming inferior potatoes. In the case of the IAF, the nation, these experts point out, is placed at risk if the pilots are given old, second hand planes to fly.
The higher-ups in the Defence Ministry, experts have demanded, should explain how and why the decison was taken to buy second hand MIG trainers. In a world where the common person is hesitant to buy second hand cars, the Indian Air Force has purchased second hand MIG trainers from Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine with the excuse that these are chaper. The new aircraft, according to the Defence Ministry, cost more than Rs 190 crores as against the second hand trainer that has been made available at just Rs 2.5 crores.
The crash of some second hand MIG trainers in recent times, defence analysts argue, clearly proves the folly of this logic that has placed young valualble lives of the Indian pilots are grave risk with the death of each piloit resulting in incalculable loss to the nation. More than 30 second hand MIG trainers have already been purchased by the IAF, despite the fact that old aircraft are not being used by even countries smaller and more cash strapped than India.
Romania and Gulgaria, for instance, have withdrawn some of the MIG variants with IUndia also having declared earlier that it had decided to ground MIG-21 Type 69 trainers after an earlier crash. The MIGs, instead of arousing fear in the enemy, have scared the nation that is perturbed about the unacceptable los of lives. The "flying coffins" as these aircraft are being popularly refered to, has lost the trust and confidence of the people., with the Defence Ministry coming under a cloud for its insitrence that pilot error, and not engine failure, has been responsible for the number of inordinate number of accidents.
The Romanian Aerostar-manufactured Rs 13 engine, which powers the Type 69 trainer, has been overhauled by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) at Korapur for more than a decade now. The Russians are reported to have blamed India periodically for recurring MIG crashes. The Rusians accuse HAL and the IAF of "creating conditons for frequent crashes by buying low-quality spares, even spares that have outlived their utility" from Ukraine and other East European countries.
According to knowledgeable sources, the IAF has in place a system of accident investigation, but many a time it has been imposible to restructure the sequence of events with the available evidence. The MIG-21, for example, has a very rudimentary flight data recorder, and quite often the baro-speed graph sheet analysi, which provides the information, is burnt out. |
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