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

by Sandeep Unnithan

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).

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.

The cause of the crash is being investigated by a board of inquiry constituted by the IAF. More information will come to light when the aircraft's Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder, both badly damaged, are sent to the RESEDA Laboratory, France for analysis. The laboratory is a dedicated agency for air accident investigations under the French defence ministry's procurement agency, the DGA.

In recent months, the IAF, which is acutely short of fighter jets-it has just 31 squadrons against a sanctioned strength of 42-has publicly voiced its unhappiness over delayed aircraft deliveries by HAL, including the upgraded Mirages. All 49 upgraded Mirages were to have been delivered by 2021, but only 10 have been upgraded so far. HAL says the delay is because it is a complex programme with work share issues between multiple partners-Dassault, HAL and Thales-and the delayed receipt of upgrade kits from France.

The IAF has ordered a court of inquiry into the crash in which HAL will also participate. The upgraded Mirage was part of a Rs 17,547 crore contract India signed with warplane maker Dassault in 2011 to upgrade its fleet of 49 Mirage-2000s that were bought in 1984. Two aircraft were upgraded in France and flown to India in 2015. The two-seat trainer variant that crashed was part of the remaining batch of 47 Mirages that are being refurbished in HAL, Bangalore with French assistance, a life-extension programme that will ensure they stay in service till 2040. Each upgraded aircraft will be equipped with new glass cockpits, radars, missiles and self-protection suites. But it comes at a steep price-the Rs 340 crore per aircraft sticker price is nearly the cost of a brand new Light Combat Aircraft.

This is exactly why veterans say it is absolutely vital for an impartial probe to establish the cause of the crash. "An impartial inquiry by an independent agency like CEMILAC-the Centre for Military Airworthiness-is imperative because they have the expertise, they are under the DRDO and thus independent of both air force and HAL," says Wing Commander Joseph Thomas (retired) who set up the IAF Test Pilots School in 1973.

The multi-role Mirage-2000H, purchased in 1984, is a versatile backbone of the IAF mainly because of its high availability-over 80 per cent of the fleet is available as opposed to just 60 per cent for the Su-30s. They also have a secondary role as nuclear-weapon carriers, which makes them vital assets for the Strategic Forces Command. Given that they are likely to be around in service for long, the IAF is keen to see an early resolution to the inquiry.