Indian Air Force's mainstay Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter crashed shortly after taking off from the Lohegaon Air Force Station in Pune on Tuesda...
The two pilots ejected safely from the airplane which had taken off for a training sortie.The fighter crashed near a village, with no casualities on ground.
The airframe of the Su-30 MKI remained largely intact and as a single piece, pointing a controlled landing.
Post crash pictures show the tail chute, flaps and the thrust vectoring nozzle in a employed position.
This is fifth crash of the IAF's most capable and deadly frontline fighter which entered service in 1997. The previous four were in Feb 2013, Dec 2011, Nov 2009 and April 2009. Incidently the Wing Cmdr Munje was also the pilot in command of the first Indian Su-30 MKI that crashed in 2009, while his co-pilot on that flight Wing Commander Pushpendra Singh Nara succumbed to injuries sustained post-ejection.
Recently, concern about the reliability of the AL-31F turbofan engine has been rising following increasing number of single engine landings due to inflight engine failures.
As a result IAF has started refurbishing the engines earlier, at 700 flying hours, instead of the stipulated 1,000 hours. A modification with the help of engine maker Saturn is being carried out by state owned Hindustan Aeronatuics Limited, which builts the engine under license at its Koraput factory. The engine modifications will be carried out in batches over the next 18-24 months after extensive testing.
In March, a leaked communications between HAL and Sukhoi revealed about the repeated mid-flight failure of the Su-30s mission computer and the blanking out of cockpit multi funtion displays.
Also maintenance of the fleet was also severly hit with the availability of the fleet pegged at 50 percent due to servicing issues with Sukhoi.
