In a mid-air mishap, a Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed near Jaisalmer in Rajasthan on Tuesday.
As per a brief statement of IAF confirming the mishap on X (formerly Twitter) ” One Tejas aircraft of the Indian Air Force met with an accident at Jaisalmer, today during an operational training sortie. The pilot ejected safely.”
Reports revealed that though no casualty was reported in the mishap as the pilot had ejected safely, a court of inquiry has been ordered to fix reason behind the accident.
29 fighter aircrafts crashed between 2012 and 2017
It may be mentioned earlier, in a written reply in Lok Sabha in 2017, Minister of State for Defence Dr Subhash Bhamre had stated that during five financial years between (2012-13 to 2016-17) up to July 18, 2017, 29 fighter aircraft including 5 Sukhoi-30 and 3 trainer aircraft had crashed. Technical Defects and Human Error were the main causes of the accidents.
Every aircraft accident in the IAF is investigated by a Court of Inquiry (CoI) to ascertain the cause of accident and the recommendations of the completed Courts of Inquiry are implemented. Training of pilots in the IAF is regularly reviewed to stay abreast of the latest teaching techniques utilizing state of the art training aids, which was a continuous process, the minister had added.
54 accidents occurred in aviation sector between 2017 and 2022
Meanwhile, as per data made available by Directorate of Air Safety (DAS), Director General Civil Aviation (DGCA), in past six years between 2017 and 2022 of a total of 54 accidents had occurred in aviation sector in country.
DAS data revealed, 8 mishaps occurred in 2017, 8 mishaps 2018, 10 mishaps in 2019, 7 mishaps in 2020, 9 mishaps in 2021 besides 12 accidents in 2022 respectively.
The data further revealed, accidents were reported from six type of operators in the six year period including Scheduled Operators, Non-scheduled operators, Flying Training Institutes, Government Operators, Private Operators and Foreign Operators.
YEAR-WISE NUMBER OF ACCIDENTS
| Year | Scheduled
Operator |
Nonscheduled
Operator |
Flight Training Institute | Government
Operator |
Private
Operator |
Foreign
Operator |
Total Accidents |
| 2017 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| 2018 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 2019 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| 2020 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 2021 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | NIL | NIL | 9 |
| 2022 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 1 | NIL | 12 |
Source: Directorate of Air Safety, DGCA
