Tue, 11 February , 2025 Home About Us Advertisement Contact Us
Breaking News

‘Crashed AN-32 was airworthy’

New Delhi

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh today informed the Rajya Sabha that the AN-32 plane of the Indian Air Force, which had crashed recently in Arunachal Pradesh, was completely airworthy and such accidents in the country have come down from 1.04 in 1999 to 0.33 currently per 10,000 flying hours.

Responding to supplementary queries during question hour, the minister, while claiming that the accident was unfortunate, noted that there was “no issue regarding the airworthiness of the aircraft”. He said 13 persons onboard lost their lives in the ill-fated aircraft.

“The average accident rate has reduced from 1.04 per 10,000 flying hours in 1999 to 0.52 in 2004. This has further reduced to 0.46 in the next five years and currently the accident rate is 0.33 per 10,000 flying hours,” Singh said.

The minister said a court of inquiry had been ordered within hours of the incident, and that the reasons for the accident would be ascertained only after the report was submitted and accordingly the same would be shared with the members of the House.

Noting that had there been no improvement, the rate of accidents would not have come down, the Defence Minister said the upgrade of aircraft “is a regular process” and that the MIG-29s would also come under it.

52 planes upgraded so far

As far as planes are concerned, particularly AN-32, so far 52 have been upgraded, but we cannot say that those planes which have not yet been upgraded are not airworthy. It would not be fair to conclude that. — Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister

Comments

comments