Fixing The Blame

The crash of a newly upgraded Mirage-2000 trainer aircraft, which killed two test pilots of the Indian Air Force, is the newest pain point between the air force and public sector undertaking Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

- Sandeep Unnithan

The twin-seat Mirage-2000 that took off from the HAL airport on February 1 was being piloted by two officers from the IAF’s Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE) as part of acceptance sorties to evaluate the aircraft’s ability to be inducted into service.

One version of what happened next was that the aircraft nose-dived onto the runway even before its undercarriage could be retracted. The jet slid along on its twin drop tanks, each holding 1,700 litres of fuel, tearing through arrester barriers meant to restrain aircraft and an inner boundary wall. Both Squadron Leader Samir Abrol and his co-pilot, Squadron Leader Siddhartha Negi, ejected safely, but unfortunately died in injuries sustained when they fell back onto the blazing wreckage.

Anguished veterans saw the horrific crash as another example of PSU callousness. ‘The military has for decades flown poor-quality HAL machines and often paid with young lives but not reckoning for the HAL management. Time to focus on the leadership and directors of this giant PSU,’ former navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash tweeted a day after the crash.