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The earlier PIB release about the crash site and operations can be better understood with the above picture. Some excerpts from the PIB report:
Yesterday, on 26 Oct 2011, the Task Force Commander Gp Capt P K Sharma VM, coordinating the search for the missing MiG-29 aircraft and pilot, confirmed locating crash site at 15000’ AMSL above ‘Chokhang’ village in ‘Lahaul’ area. He informed that several components of the aircrafts have been recovered after digging under the snow and rubble. These are being brought down to base camp for proper identification.
The IAF search teams were dropped on the ledge 200m above the suspected crash site at an elevation of 15000’ AMSL. This is about 5000’ above the valley base along village ‘Chokhang’. The ground search party was divided in groups to cover the bowl and the slopes on either side of the ridge where the images had indicated presence of debris. At a gradient of 70-80 degree and in an avalanche prone area, the progress could not have been faster. Eight expert mountaineers including three from Army were dropped on the ledge by helicopter. They spent the night on the ledge with just basic survival gear. Visual reconnaissance of the area by helicopter on subsequent days could not confirm the exact crash site since the area was now covered under fresh snow.
Since 19 Oct the search parties have continued to manually clear the snow and digging the earth on these treacherous slopes using shovels and pickaxes in the area along the lines of impact, in search of the debris. In the mean time, a base camp was set up at 13000’ AMSL on a ledge to provide support to the search party. About 55 personnel in all including expert mountaineers from the IAF, Army and some hired mountaineers are involved in the search of the pilot & debris of the missing aircraft.
Since decades back there have been systems incorporated with Ejection Seat(i.e. MB-H4HA) that reports Ejection of the seat automatically on the VHF Distress Frequency, these systems were called VEER Alarm(VHF Energized Ejection Alarm System).
The motive of this automatic system was that in case the ejection is unplanned i.e. pilot doesn't have time to report his status on R/T, this alarm gets energized just after pulling the handle and the controllers can determine that there has been an ejection of one of their ac and SAR could be activated immediately.
Sometimes such systems cause a false alarm due to loose connections or like-wise in which case the sop is that all ac maintain R/T silence and report ops-normal till it is determined that everything is ok and the ac with the snag is to land asap.
So this brings out the fact that it is very much required to have an automatic ejection alarm system in the fighter ac. A false alarm can easily be detected and singled out, but having to operate a manual alarm has lots of disadvantages.
Since I am no expert on this issue, there are a few questions that I would like to pose here
1. In the above system I mentioned, I found no reference that the VEER Alarm is a part of Ejection Seat, so till that time I would assume that the Tx of the Alarm is a part of ac and it works from the time handle is pulled to the time the ac impacts the ground and the Alarm dis-integrates ( again I don't think that VEER Alarm is anything sturdy as a black box).
2. We all have seen the movie- Behind enemy lines, in which there was a beacon in the ejection seat as well as a handheld R/T in the survival pack.
My info was based on decades old tech. , so what was present in Mig-29 is an open question for us.
I had written in the earlier post about the carriage of SARBE-8 system; if i am correct then i think that almost all the fleet of IAF are likely to get, or in the process of fitting with the system.
ITS a CSAR capable system, pl have a look on the capability of PLB or pilot locator beacon capable of CSAR specs.
There would have been some issues with the carriage or usage of the equipment; no one can discount that or else we would have had tomer amongst us by now.
Terrain is "RUTHLESS" to say the least. Any of you who have been on mountaineering courses on any such terrain would simply understand that its difficult if not impossible to sustain the drive and light of survival if you are injured or incapacitated in such a terrain.
Lets hope for the best, after all miracles do happen.
That is a gripping write-up of a sad story. I think that for jingos and armchair marshals on BR the story shows what great detail is considered in an accident investigation. The particularly galling accusation made on here that the Air Force does not care is unfair and I mention it only to condemn it.
Since decades back there have been systems incorporated with Ejection Seat(i.e. MB-H4HA) that reports Ejection of the seat automatically on the VHF Distress Frequency, these systems were called VEER Alarm(VHF Energized Ejection Alarm System).
The Martin Baker H4HA seat never did have this system in the IN.
Kirans of Suryakirans had the VEER Alarm. In the pic you could read the inscription "Ejection Alarm System" on the panel to the right of stick and bottom of demisting-air conditioning pipe. The toggle switch is also a part of the alarm.
I was reading through similar crashes where combat aircraft crashed into the sides of mountains. This perticular USAF's operation lasted month's until human remains were recovered.
This show's how much difficult these search and recovery missions can be and we are not the first one to face it.
The search for the crash site was conducted by the US Air Force, Colorado Air National Guard and the Civil Air Patrol. A U-2 reconnaissance plane from Beale Air Force Base in California overflew the area and identified five possible sites. Twenty days after Button's aircraft disappeared, an Air Force TH-53A helicopter spotted metal fragments in the snow on Gold Dust Peak. Steep terrain, bad weather, high winds, deep snow, rock slides and avalanches hampered access to the site.[21] Rodents were even found to be chewing through the ropes of recovery personnel.[22] It was several more days before the wreckage was confirmed to be Captain Button's missing A-10. It took another four months to recover the human remains.
Sid wrote:I was reading through similar crashes where combat aircraft crashed into the sides of mountains. This perticular USAF's operation lasted month's until human remains were recovered.
This show's how much difficult these search and recovery missions can be and we are not the first one to face it.
The search for the crash site was conducted by the US Air Force, Colorado Air National Guard and the Civil Air Patrol. A U-2 reconnaissance plane from Beale Air Force Base in California overflew the area and identified five possible sites. Twenty days after Button's aircraft disappeared, an Air Force TH-53A helicopter spotted metal fragments in the snow on Gold Dust Peak. Steep terrain, bad weather, high winds, deep snow, rock slides and avalanches hampered access to the site.[21] Rodents were even found to be chewing through the ropes of recovery personnel.[22] It was several more days before the wreckage was confirmed to be Captain Button's missing A-10. It took another four months to recover the human remains.
That is a gripping write-up of a sad story. I think that for jingos and armchair marshals on BR the story shows what great detail is considered in an accident investigation. The particularly galling accusation made on here that the Air Force does not care is unfair and I mention it only to condemn it.
It was an excellent look on how the CoI works.. amazing reading..
14:25 'Flying Coffin' MiG 21crashes in Haryana, no casualties : Just in: A MiG 21, also called a Flying Coffin, has crashed in Sirsa in Haryana. No casualties have been reported.
On re-reading the previous pages I just realized that there is a false impression that the survival kit stays with the seat on ejection. Let me inform you all that the survival pack including the locator beacon stays linked with the pilots harness through a lanyard when the seat separates from the pilot and his deploying parachute. Therefore, please be assured that an ejected pilot in not required to go hunting for his kit after he touches ground.
Thank goodness the pilot is safe, looks like a technical glitch which was detected pretty early in the sortie. Did the mig-21 have soem onboard semsors to detect the glitch? Don't they have any premission diagnostics tools to check the aircraft. I remember something like this for M2ks.
Shrinivasan wrote:Thank goodness the pilot is safe, looks like a technical glitch which was detected pretty early in the sortie. Did the mig-21 have soem onboard semsors to detect the glitch? Don't they have any premission diagnostics tools to check the aircraft. I remember something like this for M2ks.
No. The MiG 21 has nothing of the sort. That does not mean that all "glitches" will go undetected. Fuel gauge, oil pressure sensors, attitude/altitude sensors, engine RPM, temperature gauges, response of the aircraft to control inputs all give warning signals to the pilot.
The medical analogy is the difference between a paediatrician looking at an infant (pilot in MiG 21) and an adult doctor (modern aircraft). No matter what the illness the child cries, does not eat, and looks sick and will not say exactly what's up. The adult will tell the doctor "I have a pain in my belly/butt/fever"
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.
Happens to the best of them! For those who blamed the Russians for faulty cockpit ergonomics in the first Su-30MKI crash, read the Alaska F-22 crash report.
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.