IAF has launched a probe into a “rare phenomenon” that led to a Sukhoi (SU)-30 fighter jet crashing near Pune last week. It turns out, the ejection seats of the SU-30 jet “fired” on their own while the plane was landing after a sortie. The plane crashed but both the pilots were ejected out automatically. The plane also did not suffer any major damage.
Not willing to take any chances, the IAF has grounded all the 200 SU-30s for technical evaluation. The planes will fly only after the engineers give the green signal that the SU-30s are safe. Russian manufacturers are also likely to join IAF in finding out the reason for “misfiring” of the ejection seats even when the plane was flying safely and in no apparent danger of a malfunction.
The plane crashed near Pune on October14, 2014 in which both ejection seats had “fired” whilst the aircraft was coming in to land. The pilots were safe but the aircraft crashed about 30 kms short of the runway. No loss of life or damage to property was eported. Mandatory court of inquiry was immediately initiated to investigate the cause of accident, IAF officials said here on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, as is the procedure in such cases, the flying of the SU-30 fleet was temporarily suspended, they said adding the court of inquiry was in progress and certain specific checks are being conducted on the aircraft. As and when the checks are complete and the Court of Inquiry is satisfied, the SU-30s will be put back into flying.
SU-30s are the frontline fighter jets of the IAF with high speed and long range strike capability to hit targets deep inside China. SU-30 squadrons are based in Pune, Barilley, Jhabua, Tezpur, Halwara and Sirsa. The planes in all these bases have stopped flying for the time being till the engineers are satisfied that they are safe to fly.
Incidentally, IAF had grounded flying of SU-30s on two earlier occasions in the past few years when two of them crashed. Inducted into service in 1997, five SU-30s have crashed since 2008 with the last one in 2013. The grounded fleet of SU-30 comprise almost a third of the country’s fighter plane fleet.
At present, IAF has 200 SU-30s in its inventory and will induct 72 more in the next two to three years. While initial lot of 50 jets were bought off the shelf from Sukhoi company of Russia, the remaining aircraft are now manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics limited (HAl) in India under the transfer of technology pact.