Bharat Rakshak

3rd or 2nd?

MANGALORE: Thirteen Navy personnel on board the Indian Navy helicopter (IN566), which stopped at Mangalore Airport to refuel, had a providential escape when the fire which erupted near the rotors was swiftly contained by the alert rescue and fire fighting services in Mangalore Airport on Monday.

Mangalore Airport sources said that at 10.45 am the Garuda Indian Navy helicopter (Call sign/registration IN556 type) flying from Cochin to Mumbai landed at Mangalore for refueling.

When the helicopter moved to parking stand 1, smoke was first seen near the rotors and CISF personnel reported the smoke to ATC at 10.56 am. When the smoke which subsequently developed into fire could not be contained with carbon monoxide, the services of Airports Authority of India (AAI) swung into act.

“There was no casualty and all 13 personnel on board were safe,” Mangalore Airport director M R Vasudeva informed. The helicopter was declared not air-worthy and grounded at the Mangalore Airport. The 13 personnel were shifted to Mumbai in a doriner aircraft, sources from the airport told Express.

Hit by Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)’s findings into the 2010 August Chetak crash, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) launched a strong defence terming some of the comments as “incorrect”.

CHENNAI: A Kiran Trainer Aircraft of IAF today crashed on the outskirts of the city during a routine training sortie, but both the pilots ejected to safety.

The two-seater aircraft, which left the Air Force Station at suburban Tambaram, crashed near Iyancherry village, some 30 km from here, police said.

"A Court of Inquiry has been ordered to find out the reasons for the crash", a Defence Ministry release said.

A Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) on Friday crashed near Bhind in Madhya Pradesh soon after taking off from an air base in Gwalior but both the pilots managed to eject.

The Mirage 2000 aircraft was on a routine training sortie when it developed a snag in the engine and crashed near Bhind district, an IAF spokesperson said.

He said the two pilots in the aircraft had managed to eject and search and rescue operations have been launched to locate them.

The IAF has ordered a court of inquiry (CoI) to ascertain the reasons behind the crash.

The Air Force operates a fleet of 51 Mirage aircraft from the Maharajpura air base in Gwalior.

These aircraft started getting inducted into the IAF in the mid-80s and have had a very good flight safety record, the spokesperson said.

The IAF has also recently signed two deals worth over $ 3.2 billion for upgrading the capabilities of the Mirage 2000 with French companies Dassault, Thales and MBDA.

This is the second crash involving an IAF aircraft this year. A Kiran MK II trainer plane had crashed in Chennai on January 30.

In this financial year, this is the eighth crash of a fighter aircraft of which most were from the MiG 21 series.

Update on the Mirage crash:
The two missing pilots have been found. Wing Commander Ram Kumar and co-pilot Air Marshal Anil Chopra ejected safely. The aircraft crashed near Bhind in MP.

The two missing pilots have been found. Wing Commander Ram Kumar and co-pilot Air Marshal Anil Chopra ejected safely. The aircraft crashed near Bhind in MP.

Hooo boy.... some heads are gonna ROLL!

Like this:

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Will this ejection affect his medical category and there by career/promotions?

Hooo boy.... some heads are gonna ROLL!

Like this:

Good thing the pilots (and they are seniors too) are safe. Now this makes me wonder, and I've always sort of thought - the Mirage 2000 engines (M53-p2?) are getting rather old - are they also going to be upgraded in the upgrade deal? Can engines have such long lives or are new replacements being considered?

AM Chopra is going to be turning 60 soon. I do wonder why was he was flying a fighter...

Being the commandant of the squadron, it is a tradition to fly a sortie when on a visit as a morale booster,” a senior IAF officer said.

One more story from Hindu

Mirage 2000 crash in MP

IAF officials said that it was for the first time that a Mirage 2000 suffered engine failure since the induction of the aircraft

They were picked up by a SAR helicopter shortly thereafter and transferred to the military hospital in Gwalior.

IAF grounds entire Mirage 2000 fighter fleet pending investigation into the two crashes on Feb 25 and today. Standard procedure.

Praying for pilot

Praying for pilot

IAF Mirage-2000 that crashed today was a trainer too. Engine flame-out at 16,000 feet. Both pilots eject safely.