Air Force and HAL staff recover flight data recorder and other instruments at the crash site where IAF's Mirage 2000 crashed killing two pilots at HAL Yamllur in Bangalore on Friday

Test pilots are among the most qualified personnel in the Indian Air Force in terms of the number of flying hours and technologies they are exposed too

BANGALORE: Test pilots are among the most qualified personnel in the Indian Air Force in terms of the number of flying hours and technologies they are exposed too.

It is due to these reasons, experts have described the incident as a “disaster” which snuffed the lives of two young pilots of IAF.

As authorities probe into the terrible accident, experts feel that such tragedies only occur when even extremely trained personnel of IAF get little or no time to react.

Speaking to The New Indian Express, retd Air Marshal BK Pandey, former IAF Training Command chief, said that the pilots might not have been able to follow the standard protocol - which they are trained for - due to the sudden developments.

“It is unfortunate that we have lost two highly qualified pilots. However trained an officer might be, he cannot be trained with real-time scenarios,” Pandey said.

“Test pilots are trained to eject from the aircraft and other procedures to follow if the aircraft catches fire. But it is unfortunate that the pilots did not get the time to follow the protocols,” he said.

Another expert, who did not wish to be quoted, said that test pilots are among the most-experienced pilots of the aircraft and fly such platforms which are never flown before.

It is due to such skill sets, test pilots are often selected as astronauts. They also have expertise to work on multiple aviation platforms developed by countries such as the USA and Russia. 

“By the looks of it, it appears that the ill-fated pilots attempted to decelerate the aircraft even before it crashed into the barrier at the end of the runway. Or else, I fear that the damages might have been more widespread,” he said.