Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: The Indian Air Force on Wednesday grounded its entire Sukhoi-30MKI fleet as a precautionary measure, following Monday’s crash of one of the jets at Jetha Ki Dhani near Pokhran firing ranges in Rajasthan.
"Following the crash at Jaisalmer in Rajasthan on
Monday, the IAF has stopped flying all its Sukhoi planes and
is conducting precautionary checks on each of the aircraft,"
an IAF official said here today.
The IAF has decided to carry out precautionary checks on all the jets before letting them fly again.
The Russian-origin Sukhoi-30MKI is the frontline combat jet of the IAF. Monday’s crash was the second such accident this year. The two pilots on board managed to eject in time.
The aircraft, which took off from Bareilly airbase, was participating in a fire power demonstration.
This was the second crash of the Sukhoi combat jet since its induction 12 years ago. In April, a Sukhoi had crashed in Rajasthan due to the failure of its sophisticated fly-by-wire system. The pilot, Wing Commander SV Munje, and the co-pilot, Wing Commander PS Narah, had managed to bail out in time but the latter was killed after being apparently hit by the falling debris of the aircraft.
The Su-30 was inducted in 1996 and the IAF fleet currently has 98 such aircraft. This will rise to 230 by 2015.
Of the Su-30s in the IAF fleet, some were bought in flyaway condition from its Russian manufacturer while state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) manufactured the others under licence. It was not clear which category the crashed jet belonged to.
The Su-30 has won universal acclaim from the Air Forces of the US, Britain and France whenever it has been fielded against them in war games. Eight Su-30s had participated in the prestigious Red Flag exercise with the US Air Force at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, last year and had more than held their own against their counterparts' F/A-18 and F-16 combat jets.
First Published: Wednesday, December 02, 2009, 13:06