New Delhi: "Concerned" over incidents of crashes of old trainer aircraft claiming lives of young pilots in the country, MPs, cutting across party lines, have written to Defence Minister AK Antony asking him to move "swiftly" to modernise the training equipment.
Referring to the recent air crash in Hyderabad in which two naval pilots were killed, the letter by four MPS, including one from Congress, said the fatalities were "direct or indirect consequence of our aviators being made to fly aircraft such as the Kiran, which are almost four decades old platforms."
And the "worse" thing was that the pilots were made to conduct modern missions (aerobatic flying) and doctrine with "equipment and support that are completely mismatched and inadequate to these missions," read the letter by Rajiv Chandrashekhar (Independent), Milind Deora (Congress), M V Mysura Reddy (TDP) and K B Shanappa (BJP).
During the Hyderabad air show, two naval pilots –Cdr S K Maurya and Lt Cdr Rahul Nair -- had died while performing aerobatics on their Kiran Mk II aircraft as part of the Navy`s Sagar Pawan Aerobatics Team.
The MPs said the two pilots had joined the list of aviators who volunteered to serve the country but "died in peacetime flying- not due to enemy action or hostilities."
Describing as "overdue" the modernisation of the armed forces, a stated objective of the government, the MPs said "we seek your personal attention in modernisation of aviation
platforms specifically of the training platforms" as "aviation is far more unforgiving of errors and flaws."
Observing that best training and model platforms in the air forces were required, the letter further added that "being compromised at the training and platforms is causing so much loss of precious lives of our young men and women."
They also pointed out that the recent accidents involving the HPT-32 and Kiran aircraft have resulted in grounding of their fleets.
In their letter, the MPs urged the Defence Minister to behold his responsibility to "ensure that these young men and women (pilots who serve) are given best training inputs
and equipment for their jobs."
PTI
