The entire fleet of SU-30 MKI fighter jets, which was temporarily grounded after one of the fighter jets crashed near Pune, is likely to commence operational flying missions from Monday. IAF chief Marshal NAK Browne said it was due to an unknown fault that gave no indication to the pilot and an expert team from Russia has arrived to address it.

The go-ahead for resumption of sorties came after the IAF engineers inspected all the 130 SU-30 jets located in four air bases including Pune, Bareilly, Jhabua and Tezpur. A mandatory court of inquiry is on to ascertain the cause of the mishap and results are expected as soon as possible.

“There was a problem in the fly-by-wire system... This is a new thing. Pilot did not get any warning. There were no indications in the cockpit and the aircraft was out of control,” the IAF chief told PTI here.

He said the pilot “tried his best to control the aircraft for 15-20 minutes” before ejecting out along with the Weapon Systems Operator (WSO). Wing Commander G S Sohal was the pilot of the aircraft with Flight Lieutenant U Nautiyal as his WSO.

The first Su-30MKI which had crashed over Rajasthan in 2009 also faced problems in its fly-by wire system.

Browne said an expert team from Russia, which is the original manufacturer of the combat aircraft, has arrived in the country on Friday and will help in addressing the issue.

Russia is the original manufacturer of the twin-engine and twin-seater SU-30. The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited is manufacturing the SU-30s now under a transfer of technology agreement and the aircraft which crashed near Pune was manufactured by HAL in 2009.

Rated to be one of the best fighter jets in the world, India plans to have a total fleet of 300 SU-30s by 2015. Since the induction of the SU-30s in the IAF in the late 1990s, three mishaps involving this aircraft have taken place.  Two SU-30s crashed in Rajasthan in 2009 besides the latest mishap.