CAG raps IAF for delay in finalising aircrash inquiries

The report says the delay has cascading effect on the families of the personnel who had lost their lives in the fatal accidents.

The report says the delay has cascading effect on the families of the personnel who had lost their lives in the fatal accidents as it consequently delay the compensation to them. (Source: PTI photo)

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has rapped the Indian Air Force for delays in finalising the court of inquiry proceedings in aircraft crashes as also in not fully implementing the remedial measures recommended in the inquiry reports to avoid further accidents

The CAG’s report, which was tabled in Parliament during the recently concluded winter session, points out that delays in finalisation of the inquiries had occurred inspite of the fact that the Ministry of Defence had increased the timeline for finalisation of the inquiries from four months to nine months way back in the year 2006. The report observed that the delays in finalisation of Courts of Inquiries had mainly occurred at the level of Air Headquarters.

“As against the permissible time line of three months for processing and approval of inquiries at Air Headquarters, the time taken was from four to 21 months,” the report states adding that there were also cases where the delay ranged from six month to over 24 months.

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The CAG scrunity of IAF records for the period 2010-13 at Directorate of Aerospace Safety (DAS) revealed that 42 Courts of Inquiries of aircraft accidents were dealt with by DAS, out of which only 10 (24 per cent) were finalised within the time limit. 27 inquiries were finalised with a delay ranging from one to more than 24 months and 5 Inquiries were pending finalisation during the audit in October 2013.

The CAG report has also pointed out that the delay in completion of the inquiries had a cascading effect on the compensation to be given to the families of the personnel who had lost their lives in the fatal aircraft crashes as this too was consequently delayed.

The same report has also pointed out that there was delay in implementing remedial measures which were suggested by the Courts of Inquiries into the aircraft crashes. During the period 2010-13, 32 Courts of Inquiries of flying accidents were finalised in which 218 remedial measures based on Chief of Air Staff remarks were issued by Air Headquarters for implementation by aircraft flying units to avoid recurrence of such accidents.

The CAG audit found out on scrutiny of the register of Court of Inquiry that remedial measures were fully implemented only in 15 out of 32 Courts of Inquiries upto October 2013. In respect of remaining 17 finalised CoIs, 45 remedial measures suggested in the remarks of Chief of Air Staff were not implemented.

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The non-implemented remedial measures included measures like providing flight data recorder/cockpit voice recorder to MI-17 helicopter units, psychological study of aircrew involved in Category-1 accidents, to procure load cells to accurately determine the centre of gravity (CG) of load on MI-26 helicopter, fitment of Solid State Flight Data Recorder (SSFDR) on Mig-27 by HAL, modification of flying helmets on a fast track basis as the existing helmets flew off during ejection by pilots and to introduce the mechanism of pilot induced oscillation (PIO) as part of ground training syllabus.

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