Bengaluru: The high-end Sukhoi-30 multi-role fighters are certainly the pride of Indian Air Force fleet, but an unusual problem of pilots being ejected out of the cockpit of these jets, without any warning, has left IAF’s air warriors edgy.
The IAF lost a Su-30 because of this problem — automatic ejection of the seats—soon after the pilots began descending for touchdown at Lohegaon air base near Pune, recently.
The pilots—Wing Commander Sidharth Vishwas Munje and Flying Officer Anup Singh—survived but not only were they taken off flying duty pending an inquiry, the entire fleet of Su-30s was grounded.
“One Su-30 fighter of the Indian Air Force was involved in an accident on October 14 in which, both ejection seats had fired whilst the aircraft was coming in to land. The pilots were safe, but the aircraft crashed about 20 km short of the runway. No loss of life or damage to property was reported,” the ministry of defence said in a statement.
Sources in IAF said this was not an isolated incident, nor was it reported only by the Indian air strike wing. The Royal Malaysian Air Force lost a Su-30 because of a similar snag a couple of years ago.
Earlier this year, two IAF pilots were thrown out a Su-30 just as they started taxing for take off at the airbase in Jodhpur.
As the military jet was moving slowly on the runway, the ground crew rushed to stop it and thus prevent any damage. In another accident, an airman was killed as he hit the ceiling while carrying out pre-flight checks.
Sources said as Irkut Corporation imports pilot seats from a Russian firm NPP Zvezda, both these firms and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd were informed about this unusual problem, coupled with complaints about mid-air engine failures prompting Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha to visit the overhaul facility at HAL, Koraput, last month.
