IAF Su-30MKI crash was due to human error

A joint probe by India and Russia into the crash of IAF's Sukhoi aircraft over Jaisalmer in April has given a clearance to the quality of the fighter plane, indicating that the mishap took place due to human error. "The joint probe by IAF and Russian experts into the Su-30MKI crash has found that there is no problem with the aircraft," informed top Defence Ministry officials in New Delhi on Tuesday. "The pilot of the aircraft is said to have inadvertently switched off the flight controls in the cockpit that apparently caused the crash," officials said. The Su-30MKI, the frontline combat aircraft of the IAF, had crash while flying in a formation over Jaisalmer on April 30, in which both the pilot and co-pilot had ejected out. While the pilot, Wing Commander S V Munje, bailed out safely, the co-pilot Wing Commander P S Nara died after ejecting out of the cockpit. Immediately after the mishap, the IAF had ordered a court of inquiry, which was joined by 20 Russian experts from the original equipment manufacturers. The probe, officials said, revealed that the ejection seat's "harness had broken" leading to loss of life. "The court of inquiry has not yet completed compilation of its report. Whatever led to the fatality will come out once the report is submitted," they said. However, to buttress the point, they said: "The safety record of Sukhois is almost unrivalled." In fact, the Su-30MKI from a squadron based in Pune was on an annual inspection flight when the mishap occurred and the pilot had reported trouble in the aircraft before he and the co-pilot ejected out. The crash led to reports that the aircraft's had become unstable during flight due to structural faults in its airframe and the problem with the ejection seat proved fatal for the co-pilot. Soon after, the IAF ordered that all the 60 Sukhoi fighters in its fleet should be in the hangars for precautionary checks and the aircraft did not fly for about a fortnight. However, after the joint probe team gave its clear signal to fly the aircraft the IAF took them out on sorties and has now flown them to Tezpur in Assam from Pune for deployment near the Sino-Indian borders in the north-east. India had first inducted Su-30s, which were directly purchased off-the-shelf from Russia, in 1997. Later, the HAL-produced Su-30MKIs were inducted into IAF service in 2002 and currently operates 80 of these air superiority, 4.5 generation fighters in three of its 33.5 squadrons. While 20 Squadron 'Lightnings', 30 Squadron 'Rhinos' and 8 'Pursoots' Squadron are based in Pune, the 24 Squadron 'Hawks' are located in Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh.

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