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Tribune Special
Failure of both engines led to MiG crash
Vijay Mohan
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 29
Failure of both engines in the IAF MiG-29 fighter aircraft led to its crash near Ambala yesterday. This has shaken up the Air Force as the engines powering the MiG-29 are of a proven design and considered to be among the safest and most reliable.

While the exact cause of the engine trouble would only be established by the court of inquiry ordered into the accident, several possibilities are being talked about within the force.

“The MiG-29’s RD-33 engine was of a totally new design and in terms of technology, it was radically different from engines installed in the earlier generations of MiG fighters,” Wg Cdr D.P. Sabharwal (retd), who trained on the MiG-29 in Russia, said. “The chance of both engines developing technical fault on a single sortie is perhaps one in a million,” he said.

After being in use for about 20 years, this engine is to be replaced by a newer, more advanced version to be produced by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited under license from Russia. Also, the MiG-29 is in for a major upgrade.

According to a senior officer at Air Headquarters, the first engine flamed out about seven minutes after the aircraft had taken-off from Adampur on a routine sortie. The pilot, Sqn Ldr Vivek Naik called in for an emergency landing at Ambala, and as he was approaching the airfield, the second engine too gave out. The aircraft had crashed at about 3.20 pm.

Engine flame-outs may occur from bird hits, material failure, maintenance faults or incompetent handling. IAF officers say that at that time in the afternoon, there is little or no bird activity.

As far as fuel is concerned, the aircraft would have consumed several thousand litres by the time trouble cropped up. This also reduces the possibility of blockages in the fuel flow or malfunctioning of fuel pumps of both engines.

Another reason for flame-outs, IAF officers say is excessive or improper manoeuvring, resulting in a “compression surge”. Such manoeuvring causes heavy fluctuations in air inflow, where air intake is drastically reduced while fuel injection into the engine continues.

In a twin engine aircraft like a MiG-29, Jaguar or Su-30, if one engine conks-off, the aircraft can be brought to base safely on the remaining engine. The chances of the second engine also failing can result from improper handling, for example, if its power is pushed up excessively or it is inadvertently switched-off instead of eth affected engine.