IAF lost 46 fighter aircraft in crashes since 2005
24 Aug 2011
New Delhi: The government informed the Rajya Sabha that the Indian Air Force (IAF) lost 46 fighter aircraft in the seven years since 2005. These crashes resulted in the death of six pilots.
"During 2008 to August 17, 2011, a total of 26 fighter planes of IAF had crashed. During the preceding three-year period of 2005 to 2008, 20 IAF fighter planes had crashed," defence minister AK Antony informed the Rajya Sabha.
The minister also said, "The makes of these fighter planes were MiGs, Su-30 MKI and Jaguar. Six pilots were killed in these crashes."
During this period, a maximum number of fighter jets crashed in 2009-10, when IAF lost a total of 10 planes, while two crashes have been reported this year till August.
Antony also said that every IAF aircraft accident is thoroughly investigated by a court of inquiry (CoI) to ascertain its causes and remedial measures are taken.
"IAF has taken serious measures to invigorate aviation safety organization, streamlining of accident and incident reporting procedure, analytical studies and quality audits of aircraft fleets to identify vulnerable areas and institute remedial measures to reduce aircraft accidents," he said.