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Special Story
Indian Air Force grounds MiG 29 fighters
Vijay Mohan
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 2
Following the crash of a MiG-29 — the IAF frontline counter-air fighter — near Ambala last week, the Air Force has “grounded” part of the fleet for extensive checks, it is learnt.

Sources at the Adampur airbase in Punjab, where two of the IAF’s three MiG-29 squadrons are based, told The Tribune that flying operations had been suspended till further orders.

An MiG-29 from Adampur had crashed while on a routine sortie after both its engines had seized or flamed-out. Failure of both engines of an otherwise reliable design is stated to be “one in a million” chance.

“The situation is what we refer to as aircraft-on-ground (AOG), where the entire fleet may not be affected by a particular snag, but flying operations are put on hold simply as a precautionary measure till the exact cause of an accident is established,” a senior officer at Air Headquarters said.

“The IAF has not issued a central order restricting flying by MiG-29 and the AOG orders may have been issued at the command level,” he added. Nonetheless it means that the majority of MiG 29s are not flying.

This is for the second time in two years that a major combat type in the IAF has been placed on AOG. In 2004, the Jaguar fleet was grounded for extensive technical checks after four of them crashed in succession.

IAF sources said that the possibility of adulterated fuel, which may have led to engine seizure, is also being seriously explored. “There is reason to explore this angle,” an IAF officer said, indicating that instances of fuel adulteration may have come to light earlier.

It is now known that the first engine of the ill-fated flamed-out was due to a fuel problem. Sources revealed that engine flame-outs in the MiG-29 is becoming a cause of concern, with three such incidents occurring this year.

Also to note is the latest Comptroller and Auditor General’s report, which revealed serious shortcomings in the MiG-29’s maintenance and overhaul process, particularly the work on engines.

The meantime between failure (MTBF) of HAL overhauled engines was also very low, with 74 per cent of engines that underwent full overhaul during the past eight years being withdrawn prematurely. “This necessitated carrying out more interim overhauls at a cost of Rs 56.56 crore,” the report said.

The MTBF of HAL-overhauled engines was just 60 hours whereas it was 213 hours for engines overhauled by the original equipment manufacture OEM. The Air Force also pointed out that engines overhauled by HAL had been found to be with serious defects which had grave flight safety and maintenance implications.

The CAG also pointed out deficiencies in maintenance at the squadron level. In one instance it found out that available specialised tools were not being used resulting in misalignment of components, leading to excessive vibrations in the engines.

Inducted into the IAF about two decades ago, the MiG-29 has one of the best flight safety records in the IAF. It is now in for a major upgrade programme entailing increase in its range by incorporating larger internal fuel tanks as well as in-flight refueling facilities, more powerful radar, advanced avionics and a newer variant of its RD-33 engine. The IAF has three squadrons of this type.