Recently, India witnessed the loss of one of the passionate pilots of the Indian Air Force, Sqn Ldr Meet Kumar, whose Mig-21 crashed near Kangra in HP.
This was the first and only military aircraft accident till date in India. However, from the recent past, the crash history does not look so good. Since financial year 2015-16, there has been 30 aircraft crash in the Indian military with 43 personnel dying as a result of this. It has also resulted in a loss of 29 aircrafts of the Indian military. Let us have a look at these numbers since FY 2015-16:
2015-16
During this year, 2 aircrafts of the Army Aviation Corps and 6 aircrafts of the Indian Air Force crashed in separate incidents. Luckily there was no loss of life. However, all the 8 aircrafts were lost in the crashes.
2016-17
In the financial year 2016-17, the Army Aviation Corps reported crash of 1 aircraft, resulting in the loss of 4 lives. The accident occurred when a Cheetah helicopter crashed at Sukna Base in West Bengal, killing 3 officers and 1 JCO.
On the other hand, the Indian Air Force reported a crash of 10 aircrafts, the highest in the recent years. One of these incidents is the infamous disap
pearance of An-32. All the 29 personnel on-board were feared dead. However, in crashes of other 9 aircrafts during this year, all the crew was safe.
2017-18
During FY 2017-18, the Indian Army’s Aviation Corps reported 2 aircraft crashes with loss of 1 aircraft and no loss of life.
However, the Indian Air Force reported a crash and loss of 6 aircrafts. This resulted in a loss of 9 lives of air warriors.
2018-19
This fiscal year, there was no crash reported by the Army Aviation Corps till date.
But in the Air Force, there were 3 crashes of the aircrafts which resulted in the loss of 2 lives this year and loss of all 3 aircrafts. These crashes include the loss of lives of Air Commodore Sanjai Chauhan and Sqn Ldr Meet Kumar.
No crashes in Navy
The Indian Navy was the safest force in terms of aircraft accidents. It did not report any aircraft crash incidents since 2015.
What is done after an aircraft accident?
Every aircraft accident is investigated by a Court of Inquiry to ascertain the cause of accident and the recommendations of the completed Courts of Inquiry are implemented.
