Indian Air Force Hawk Takeoff Crash
Indian officials confirmed on the 29th April that a Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT) had crashed during takeoff, but added that no serious injury was caused to either of the pilots.
This was the first accident that an Indian Air Force Hawk had been involved in.
The Air Force jet, according to the officials, crashed into a wall immediately after taking off from Bidar Air Base, Karnataka. Just how much damage occurred to the airframe is not yet known.
"Barely seconds after liftoff, there was apparently some technical snag”, one official said.
“One pilot ejected, while the other came down with the aircraft. Fortunately, none of them was seriously injured.”
Indian Hawk Order
Four years ago, India placed an order with the Hawk’s maker – BAE Systems – for the delivery of 66 of the type.
So far, ten are in service.
These ten are from an initial batch of 24 which are being delivered as complete airframes direct from BAE.
The remaining 42 are to be made locally by India’s HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) firm.
The Indian Air Force is proposing to acquire 40 more Hawks in a $1.25 billion dollar deal.
Air Force Hawks Grounded
After the crash, a grounding was imposed on the Indian Air Force’s nine other Hawks, pending completion of a investigation into what happened.
In a statement, BAE said it would be “inappropriate to speculate on the cause of the incident” until the investigation’s end.
"We will fully support IAF and the defence ministry in any investigation they undertake", a spokesman for the firm added.
61 Crashes, 30 Pilots Killed: Antony
On the same day that details emerged on the Hawk crash, A.K Antony, Indian Defence Minister, told Parliament that, since 2003, 61 Indian Air Force aircraft had been involved in crashes.
30 pilots, he added, had been killed.
"The main reasons behind these crashes were human error and technical faults, and continuous effort is under way in the Indian Air Force to enhance and upgrade flight safety", Antony said.
Source – Armed Forces International’s Aviation Expert
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