Air Chief Marshal Raha denies ‘human error’ claim

Raha’s version contradicted the Russian version which held “human factor” responsible for the accidents. Raha’s statement may also be viewed against Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s remark in the Parliament that “human error and technical defect” were the reasons behind the Sukhoi-30 crashes.

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Speaking at Aero India in Bangalore, Raha said the problem of Sukhoi- 30 which relates automatic ejection of seat while in flight “is not a problem in the system”. He also ruled out “human error” but added that past incidents suggest that “there is a problem”. He further added that the problems are being resolved and there are no plans of grounding the fleet.

A red bull aerobatic team pilot comes out of cockpit after some technical damage during the 2nd day of the AERO India 2015 at Yelahanka Air base in Bengaluru on Thursday. (Source: PTI photo)

The recent Sukhoi — 30 MKI crashes — the latest of which happened in Pune in October — have been related to automatic ejection of the pilot seat midway between flights. The Pune accident was followed by the IAF grounding the fleet for 20-odd days.
A team of Russian experts had visited India and deliberations were carried out to find out reasons behind the crash. Raha said the investigation is on and the final report is yet to come.

“Since we have had three or four such incidents in India and abroad, we know what we are doing. The case is not yet finalised,” Raha said.

Speaking earlier, Vitaly Borodich, senior vice president on military aviation projects, Irkut Group, which builds and integrates Sukhoi said, “Our stand is human factor”.

Identifying the reason behind Sukhoi crashes is crucial to IAF which has ordered 272 of these Russian fighters and which form IAF’s mainstay. in absence of new inductions.