29 Indian fighter jets crashed in five years

New Delhi, July 21 (IANS) Twenty-nine fighter aircraft including five Sukhoi-30 crashed over the last five years due to technical defects and human error, Parliament was told on Friday.

"During the last five financial years (2012-13 to 2016-17) and current year (upto July 18), 29 fighter aircraft including five Sukhoi-30 and three trainer aircraft have crashed," Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

Various preventive measures were being taken including streamlining of accident reporting procedure and quality audits of the aircraft fleets to identify vulnerable areas to avoid aircraft accidents, he said.

Bhamre said every aircraft accident in the Indian Air Force (IAF) was investigated by a Court of Inquiry (CoI) to ascertain the cause of accident and the recommendations were implemented.

He added that training of pilots was regularly reviewed to stay abreast of the latest teaching techniques utilising state of the art training aids.

"Accident prevention programmes have been given an added thrust to identify risk prone and hazardous areas specific to the aircraft fleets and operational environment, to ensure safe practices and procedures."