New Delhi, May 30
The Indian Air Force (IAF) said today that it had 'brought to ground' the entire fleet of its Jaguar fighter aircraft to check on a technical defect, which had caused some of these planes to crash on routine sorties.
Senior IAF officials said that a court of inquiry set up to go into the crash of a Jaguar fighter aircraft on May 7, 12 km north of Ambala, had pointed to a snag in the engine of the aircraft, which had led to the crash. A split-pin in the engine was found missing, which apparently led to the crash.
As a result the Air Headquarters here ordered that Jaguar aircraft be 'brought to ground' for a complete check-up before they were cleared for flying again. The officials said that as of now the entire fleet of the Jaguars was 'on ground' for the engine check-up.
"They would take to the skies one-by-one after the experts clear them as fit for flying," the IAF officials said. However, they pointed that this situation of bringing the Jaguars to ground was different from the aircraft actually being "grounded". The aircraft had been ordered not to fly till they were technically cleared. But it was not that they had been totally grounded and would not fly again.
The IAF has about 80 Jaguar aircraft of which four have crashed in 2004.
This was not the first time the Air Chief Marshal S. Krishnaswamy had ordered a particular type of aircraft be brought to ground for a technical check-up. Earlier, the MiG series of aircraft were brought to ground after a series of crashes last year.
The Russian experts were called in for the check-up along with the Indian experts from Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and the IAF. Later, after the technical check-up the aircraft were cleared for flying again.
Similar was the case for the Jaguars. The experts from British Aerospace, original manufactures of Jaguars, had been called in this time after the snag was detected. Along with experts from HAL, the local manufactures, they would check every aircraft for its technical quality and clear it for flying again only after it was found to be 100 per cent fit, officials said.
The IAF has four Jaguar squadrons based at Ambala, Gorakhpur and Pune, and checks are being undertaken at each station, sources said. The exercise is expected to take about two weeks. Jaguars are also in the process of undergoing a major upgradation, with digital avionics, navigation and attack systems being incorporated onboard.
Split-pins, IAF officers said, were similar to those used in automobile wheels and rotating machinery where high torque may result in nuts becoming loose. The split pin, whose two ends were twisted after being inserted into a hole in the screw in front of the nut, prevented loose nuts from falling out.
Sources said that split-pins were mandatory spares and formed a part of the IAF's Automatic Replenishment System (ARS). This meant that every time a split-pin was removed, a new one was to be used as repeated twisting may result in cracking. Air Headquarters supplied these automatically.
"If split-pins were missing, then it means that they were probably unavailable or there have been serious lapses during maintenance of pre-flight check-ups," an IAF officer commented. A Jaguar requires about 50 different types and sizes of split-pins. "There are also chances that a particular component may not have been opened for several years and split-pins in these aircraft may have jammed or weakened, thereby breaking when jolted," he added.
Meanwhile, the AHQ denied that the Commanding Officer (CO) of the Ambala-based 14th Jaguar squadron Wg Cdr S. Sarkar was posted out for improper "command and control" and was also responsible for the mid-air crash of two of the aircraft on April 2 last, as was reported in a news daily today.
The IAF spokesman, Sq Ldr Mahesh Upsani said here that the CO's posting out of Ambala had nothing to do with the crashes or the aircraft being brought to the ground. He said that posting of Wg Cdr S. Sarkar was a routine reshuffle and he was one of the best aviators that the IAF had.
