7 Navy Lt Commanders killed in mid-air ‘collision’

In one of the worst accidents in the country’s Naval aviation, two Russian Ilyushin-38 maritime reconnaissance aircraft collided mid-ai...

In one of the worst accidents in the country’s Naval aviation, two Russian Ilyushin-38 maritime reconnaissance aircraft collided mid-air during an air show this morning killing 16 people near the INS Hansa Naval airbase at Dabolim, 35 km from Panaji.

The casualties include seven officers of the rank of lieutenant commander—four in one plane, three in the other—and five sailors. Four civilians killed were migrant labourers working on a bungalow under construction near the airfield. Nineteen civilians, including a pedestrian, were critically injured. The airbase is near the Dabolim airport where flights were suspended for upto four hours.


4 civilians died when debris fell on the ground

The Navy had five of these Il-38s—bought from the former Soviet Union—two of which were lost this morning. The Il-38 was the Navy’s first anti-submarine warfare (ASW) platform, a blend of the Il-18 airliner and the Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft. The fleet formed the Squadron 315 or the Winged Stallions.

Both aircraft were overhauled in 1996 and were due to be in service till 2015. While the black box of one has been recovered, a search is on for the other.

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The two aircraft were participating in a ceremonial flypast to mark the silver jubilee of Squadron 315 and to showcase its 30,000-hr accident-free flight record.

Winged Stallions clipped

• Squadron 315 (Winged Stallions) has only 5 Il-38s, two of these were lost on Tuesday. Had a 25-yr record of 30,000 accident-free flying hours
• Navy’s first and leading anti-submarine warfare (ASW) platform, a blend of the Il-18 airliner and the Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft.
• Commissioned on October 1, 1977
• Long range (over 7,000 km), radar below cockpit and the ‘magnetic anomaly detector’ (MAD) in tail. Two bomb bays for sonobuoys, torpedoes and depth charges.
• Maximum speed: 722 kmph. Wingspan: 37.42 m; Can house two pilots and a flight engineer, another nine for systems operation
• Squadron helm changed hands 15 times, now headed by Commander S. Mathur.
• Winged Stallions located wreckage of A-I crash in Jan ’78; helped the crew of MV Najd in 1991 which earned it Nausena Medal. Helped in Maldives crisis

The accident occurred during a ‘‘closed formation demonstration’’ which aviation experts regard as risky. Assistant Chief of Naval Staff Commander Sanjay Gupta said: ‘‘A close formation demonstration does not always result in a collision or a crash but risk is always involved in such cases.’’

Those killed are pilots K S Rathore, S K Dutta, R Saini and S K Yadav (all lieutenant commanders), navigators A C Karadi, Nitish Nirmal and Jaidip Dutta (all lieutenant commanders), corporals Vijay Kumar, Prakash, J P Singh, S George and A K S Yadav, a statement said.

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‘‘At about 9.45 am, the two naval aircraft were carrying out a flypast overhead Dabolim airfield from west to east when the air traffic controller observed one aircraft diving down with wings level and the leader also banking and descending,’’ a Naval spokesman said adding that soon, the two aircraft collided and burst into flames.

However, Flag Officer Commanding (Goa Area) S K Dhamle denied eyewitness accounts that the two had collided.

‘‘It is complete rubbish to say that the two aircraft brushed or collided with each other before crashing,’’ he said adding that both were flying parallel to each other. ‘‘The full truth will come out only after the inquiry,’’ Dhamle said.

‘‘The minimum distance between two aircraft flying alongside is at least one wing span distance between the wing tips of the two aircraft. The crash could have been the result of an error in judgment or some technical defect in one of the aircraft, forcing it to veer too close to the other,’’ a Naval official in New Delhi said.

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A board of enquiry has been constituted by the Navy to investigate the cause of the collision. The Dabolim airport has now been reopened for civilian flights.