New Delhi, Nov.5
(ANI): Defence Minister A.K. Antony today asked top brass of the Indian
Air Force to complete all pending Court of Inquiry (CoI) proceedings
into air accidents as early as possible and take appropriate remedial
measures so that the possibility of future accidents are minimized.
Addressing
a meeting of the consultative committee attached to his ministry here,
he said even one accident is a matter of serious concern.
Antony
said a joint committee comprising representatives of Ministry of
Defence, Indian Air Force, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., DRDO and DG AQA
has been constituted to monitor the implementation of the
recommendations of the Court of Inquiry specially for Category-I
aircraft accidents. Category-I accidents are those in which the aircraft
is destroyed or damaged beyond economical repair, or is missing or the
cost of repair, excluding damage to aero-engines exceeds 50% of the
total cost.
A Defence Ministry release further quoted Antony, as
saying that a one-time inspection of all helicopter detachments was
carried out in view of the fact that an unusually high number of
accidents and incidents on helicopters occur, when they are operating
away from their parent base. These inspections resulted in highlighting
several shortcomings. Action is being taken on these shortcomings on a
priority basis.
Another area of focus, he said, is the training
standards of young fighter aircrew. The deficiencies in training are
rectified by a review of training patterns, enhancement of availability
of training aircraft and strengthening of training procedures. The basic
flying training task was shifted from HPT-32 to Kiran aircraft.
To
make up for the deficiencies of training resources, the availability of
Kiran aircraft is being enhanced to strengthen the foundation training
of ab-initio pilots.
Maximum availability of simulators is
ensured during training. Procurement of 75 Basic Trainer Aircraft has
been fast-tracked and the first training course on the new trainer
aircraft 'Pilatus' will commence in July 2013.
Antony said plans
to phase out equipment approaching redundancy are also in place and
certain critical procurements have been fast-tracked. Non-upgraded
MiG-27 and MiG-21 are being phased out progressively by March 2016 and
March 2018 respectively.
Cutting across party lines, the Members
of Parliament complimented Indian Air Force for progressively bringing
down Cat-I accident rates over the past thirty years.
However, they cautioned IAF not to sit on laurels and take further measures in air safety to match the global standards.
Responding
to a query on the shortage of spare parts for the aging aircraft fleet
of Indian Air Force, Shri Antony said earlier the acquisition of
aircraft and replenishment of spare parts used to be dealt with by
separate contracts. He said in the new contracts we are taking
corrective measures and product support is built into the process of
acquisition of new aircraft.
Members of Parliament also urged the
Government to accelerate the process of modernization of airports and
air fields in various parts of the country because such a measure will
not only improve air safety but will also spur economic growth of the
regions.
Members of Parliament who attended the meeting included
Naveen Jindal, Suresh Kalmadi, Harshvardhan, Kailkesh N. Singh Deo,
Lalit Mohan Suklabaidya, Gopal Singh Shekhawat, Ram Chandra Khuntia,
Veer Singh, H.K. Dua and Piyush Goyal.
Newly inducted Minister of
State for Defence Jitendra Singh, Defence Secretary Shashikant Sharma,
Secretary (Defence Production) R.K. Mathur, Scientific Adviser to Raksha
Mantri V.K. Saraswat, Secretary, Ex-Servicemen's Welfare, Vijay
Chibber, Vice Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal D.C. Kumria and other
officials of the Ministry of Defence and Air Force also attended the
meeting.(ANI)
http://www.newstrackindia.com
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