Two crashes- IAF Sukhoi fighter jet, Chetak chopper- adds to worry

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Fighter jet crash
Fighter jet crash

Los Angeles : In another tragedy that struck the Indian Air Force on Wednesday, a frontline Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jet and a Chetak helicopter crashed in different parts of the country raising the number of crash list.

Fortunately, both the pilots in both the crashes managed to escape safely. 

In the first incident, the Chetak helicopter developed engine failure on a routine sortie from the Bamrauli airfield near Allahabad around 7am leading to the crash.

The other incident involved a Sukhoi-30MKI jet that took off on a training sortie from the forward Utarlai airbase, in Barmer area of Rajasthan but developed technical snag and ending in a crash.

It must be noted that the armed forces have lost over 60 aircraft and helicopters in crashes leading to the deaths of over 80 people, since 2011. 

Some experts have blamed the reason of deaths to technical defects and also human error.

Sources also reveal that the combination of ageing machines, inadequate training to rookie pilots, shoddy maintenance and poor quality of spares continues to be a deadly mix and exacts a heavy toll.

While the armed forces are still forced to fly the ageing single-engine Cheetah/Chetak helicopters, government’s failure in dealing with the situation and the crash of the twin-seat Sukhoi "air dominance" fighter is more worrisome.