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| India-Pakistan |
| Pilots safe as another IAF jet crashes |
| 2005-12-28 |
| BANGALORE — A Kiran trainer aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed here yesterday, but its two pilots managed to eject out of the cockpit and are safe, an IAF spokesperson said here. The trainer jet was on a routine sortie from the Airforce Systems and Training Establishment here when it crashed in a southwestern Bangalore suburb and caught fire. A technical fault is suspected to have caused the crash. "Both the pilots — Squadron Leader Papat and Squadron Leader Deepak — jumped out in the nick of time before the aircraft hit the ground. The pilots have been rushed to the air force command hospital for treatment of injuries," the spokesperson said. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #8 History of the IAF Former in 1932, the IAF was bestowed with the prefix "Royal" in March 1945 and was then known as the Royal Indian Air Force RIAF. It reverted back to IAF in 1950 when India became a republic. |
| Posted by: john 2005-12-28 19:57 |
| #7 They got dibs on the name - 1932 |
| Posted by: john 2005-12-28 19:35 |
| #6 John. There is only one IAF. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2005-12-28 19:33 |
| #5 Reading Indian newspaper reports, one would think that aircraft in other air forces do not crash. Fact is that if one maintains the flying hours that the IAF does (average 180 hours per pilot per year) and uses aircraft beyond the manufacturer airframe life, there will be crashes. Based on 1997 figures, the IAF attrition rate is 0.32 per 10,000 flying hours. |
| Posted by: john 2005-12-28 11:42 |
| #4 here is only one IAF, and its jets do not crash. Really? The Indian Air Force (IAF) was founded in 1932. From a 2003 news report... "February 25, 2003 - Yesterday afternoon an F-16 fighter jet crashed in the northern West Bank." "Six Israeli F-16s have crashed since September 1997, including three in 2000." Only boutique air forces keep their planes on the ground, preserving them imdefinately. Real air forces train constantly and this leads to periodic crashes due to bird hits, engine problems etc. The Indian Air Force is saddled with a huge Mig 21 fleet that should have been retired years ago. Its airbase environment is also quite hostile. There are many open air abbatoirs near air fields that attract large numbers of birds, that cause quite a few crashes. Indian politicians have preventing the closing of these abbatoirs for fear of offending the muslim community. There is also the problem of unreliable spares bought from eastern europe. |
| Posted by: john 2005-12-28 11:30 |
| #3 Joe that's mean. They would be known as Black Aces. I think B-1 Bob Dornan was a Black Ace. |
| Posted by: Leon Clavin 2005-12-28 11:13 |
| #2 Another crash - keep it up and the Indian Air Force pilots may all get to meritoriously qualify as de facto Chinese aces wid out ever having to dogfight or battle China!? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2005-12-28 03:38 |
| #1 There is only one IAF, and its jets do not crash. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2005-12-28 00:28 |