The search operation is still very much on, though incessant snowfall is making things extremely difficult. Seach parties on the ground are now having to dig through snow to find pieces of the IAF MiG-29’s wreckage. Tomorrow, it will be a week since the IAF MiG-29, piloted by Squadron Leader Dharmendra Singh Tomar, crashed in mountainous terrain. The IAF says it is not giving up. Three days ago, it founds bits of wreckage and has managed to identify the general area of the crash, though debris is spread over a fair area. It is unclear if Tomar ejected or didn’t.
Every month we hear that atleast a plane of our defence forces gets crashed. Yesterday a chopper went accidentally across LOC. reason is due to bad weather/technical snag/ weather problem. does we do not have proper navigation systems installed or we dont have weather monitoring system. This shows our military aviation dept. is ill equipped or not provided with proper trainings. It is unacceptable that all the time it is technical fault or pilot error. Govt. must come clear and are bound to answerable to us, as these incidents are occuring so frequently. suffficient amount of our tax payers money are utilised here so there should not be any question for compromising with quality.
@Anon 12:29 Bad weather in the Himalayas,high-altitude areas is not the kind of bad weather we see in the places we normally reside.The aircraft on military missions /training's are not flying as per convenience but on missions.Low-level flight over mountains in highly dangerous,but it has to be done to train for low level missions.Similarly,the helicopter was going on critical duty to support another helo.IN the mountains helos are the life line of posts and pilots often have to fly despite bad weather.Unlike civil missions,avoiding bad weather or hazardous condition's at times is not an option.In any case,the weather in such difficult areas is highly unpredictable,with fair weather turning to a blinding storm within minutes.The climatic conditions there cause a lot of stress to men and machine We only hear of such missions when there is an issue.The fact is the IAF ,Army aviation carry out hundreds of such missions as a routine.We should remember that very few forces in the world have fight as high as we do.
Don't our pilots carry personal beacons/transponders for cases like these? Same goes for the aircraft. This sure is a WTF moment!
Hi Shiv,
Do pilots have a homing device which they can activate in such cases?
If they are installed then why is it not working properly? If they are not installed then why are they not installed.
-regards,
JB
if an indian defected… like in the case of Rabinder Singh… do we have a mechanism to detect it… when it happens… or detect before hand… this still can go on… and Rabinder Singh… singh is common… with one other name… well think nobody remembers… this shows GOI… has effectively… put a lid on this episode…
This is most painful for the family and for colleagues. Young lives snuffed out in the course of a mission is bad enough but equally painful is suffering through uncertainty and absence of news. There are some recon technologies that possibly can add to the slow process of mapping every inch of hostile terrain but the Indian defence forces are yet to acquire them. Hopefully, Tomar ejected and, hopefully, we will find him quickly enough.
This is the state of affairs of so called Hi-Tech force. Do not have a homing device with the aircraft or the pilot. We want to become an aerospace force!!!
All military pilots are supposed to carry Distress Radio Beacon. Its standard for NATO, US, RAAF, etc. even during exercises. Another WTF moment!
Also, ACMI pods also have in-built GPS locator. I don't think that IAF uses ACMI pods. I saw them using it during Red-Flag (must be borrowed from the yanks).
Then IAF must start using the data-recorders that remains attached to a pilot's g-suit.
IAF is spending a lot of monies to get things right, but it seems that they always miss out on the basic things that more than often lead to accidents.