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IAF fares better than USAF in terms of lower number of air crashes

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, March 31, IRNA
India-IAF-USAF
The Indian Air Force (IAF), the number four Air Force in the world, fares better than the number one air power, the United States Air Force (USAF), in terms of lower number of air crashes despite the former being heavily reliant on old technology and the latter using latest ones with continuous upgradation.

Despite the alarming rate of crashes by the aircraft of the Indian Air Force, especially MiG-21s of the old vintage types, the IAF is way below in terms of accidents in relation to the world's biggest and well-oiled USAF, media reports said here quoting Defence officials.

The USAF registers 1.25 air crashes every 10,000 hours of flying while the IAF's average accident rate is just 0.75 aircraft in the same operational duration, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Western Air Command Air Marshal A.K. Singh said.

Adding even the latest technology in aviation registers 0.5 accidents every 10,000 hours of flying and the old technology touches well beyond one crash in similar number of flying hours, Air Marshal Singh said.

"The MiG-21s, that have been perceived to be flying coffins by a sensitive society and concerned media, in fact comprise two-thirds of the IAF fleet with over 460 flying machines and every third accident has to be from the category of the aircraft coming from the same stable."
The Russian MiG Corporation produces a number of variants of the MiG series of aircraft, including the oldest types 69, 77, 75, 96 of MiG-21 followed by MiG-23, MiG-25, MiG-27 and the latest MiG-29s.

"The MiG-21 Type 75 has been upgraded to MiG-21 Bison with altogether new avionics and on board electronic systems apart from night-vision devices and mid-air refuelling capabilities, making it more competitive than the American F-16 Fighting Falcons as demonstrated during a recent joint exercise between the two countries," the source said.

"Even one accident is too many for the IAF but it happens despite best efforts by highly trained and motivated ground crew and pilots," Air Marshal Singh said.

The induction of Hawk advanced jet trainers and phasing out of the older versions of MiG-21s will further lower the accident rate as the same will offer a quantum jump for training the pilots from a sub-sonic Kiran Mark II aircraft directly to the supersonic MiG-21s and Jaguars, he said.

The addition of intermediate jet trainers in place of the Kirans as scheduled in 2015 will also help in cutting down accidents, he elaborated.

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