A recent and most modern acquisition of the Indian Air Force from the United States, the C-130J Super Hercules military transport aircraft, crashed on Friday near Gwalior, killing all five IAF personnel on board.
The wreckage of the aircraft was strewn along the Madhya Pradesh-Rajasthan border, near Karauli district, about 165 km from Jaipur. Those killed in the crash are Wing Commander Prashant Joshi, Wing Commander Raji Nair, Squadron Leader Kaushik Mishra, Squadron Leader Ashish Yadav (navigator) and Warrant Officer Krishnapal Singh (flight engineer), IAF officers said.
“One C-130J aircraft of the IAF crashed 72 miles west of the Gwalior airbase,” defence spokesperson Col. S.D. Goswami told The Hindu in Jaipur. “The aircraft took off from Agra at 10 a.m. for a routine flying training mission. A court of inquiry has been ordered to investigate the cause of the accident,” Col. Goswami said.
Keywords: IAF, C-130J Super Hercules, Gwalior, Agra airbase, military aircraft crash


























And want happened to the IAF that was sent to Malaysia to look for MH
from:
garyron
Posted on: Mar 29, 2014 at 17:58 IST
370. All other countries are searching... what happened to the Indian
aircraft?
Cant the Indian people see that all our main weaponary is going up in
flames?? Next it will be the Indian PI-8,then except fire on the
aircarft carrier, followed by explosion in our ammunination yard??? Is
anyone looking at the whole picture? Some one within the armed forces
corrupted to the core are messing up the system. Check all high
profile resignation within the past 5 years in all the wings. What is
the CAG for doing only post morteum? At this rate, we dont need to be
at war with anyone, we have enough and more capable destroyers within
the armed forces and beaurocrates to finish us off!Its one of the
nation latest acquistion and there it goes up in flame. Where the
given enough training to handle such a superior aircraft? We Indians only needs sensation news
and never bothered about defence related news. What is the probe about
the submarine sinkage. We need answer from the government!
Many of India's high value assets have been perishing at a rate faster than they can be replaced. First time it could be an incident, second time a coincident, but third time 'enemy action' must be suspected whether from within or without. What are our security sleuths doing? Or is it corruption all the way? This is costing the nation 'dear' and putting the country at risk of being undermined.
This is a huge loss, the cost of aircraft was Rs. 1000 crore which was
acquired just few months back. The blame should go to US not India for this
accident; but we know US will blame pilots for this accident.
Why we are depending on other countries to show our power ?
We are capable enough.. we just need will power. Learn from ISRO.. we have
now started lunching satellites commercially for other countries as well.
Then why we can't make our own submarines, aircrafts.
Year after years we see numerous of accidents whether it is Mig aircraft or
Russian submarines or this recent Hercules aircraft. Why still we are not
learning. These kind of accidents are not only affecting IAF but also the
budget of whole country.
Countries like US who play double game are two headed venomous snakes. They
support pakistan by providing them military infrastructure and on the other
hand they sell military equipment to India.
its all happening due to india's poor defense purchasing system and if it will not change this will happen more. defense minister should give resignation to take a moral duty and responsible for this incident RIP Officers.
It is very unfortunate incident that killed five IAF officer .In recent years naval and airforce acccident has caused alot casulties. We must ensure that this type of incident would not take place in future.
Our PSUs were known for High Quality Subcizied Food at Canteen or almost Free Food. Those were the
days one would just show up to work to eat. Back in the 70's and 80's life was laid back if you have a
Govt Job it was tension free. Simple peons have raised and married a famiily of ten with Girls, built
houses, and have 80% copay on Health care. It was fun to be in Govt Job, atleast Central.
Our systems are fool-proof! We have an array of people to finalise
Tender formalities, an army of people to negotiate/finalise contracts,
a battalion of bureaucrats to visit the foreign soil (of the supplier)
to ink the deal, and finally barracks full of enquiry officers to find
out the cause and effect of such mishaps...
But we train our Pilots and Commanders in simulators! I may sound
crude, but, will be more happy if proper "in basket" training is given
to the operators of such sophisticated equipment...it is not the loss
in Rupee value that i talk about, it is the loss of skilled personnel
which is also brain-drain from our human resources...meanwhile, may
the departed souls RIP...
When India can design PSLVs and GSLVs to launch satellites in outer
space, why does the govt spend money in buying planes and ships from
other countries. I have read an article in Hindu stating that we can
build 10 Rockets at the cost of procuring one from other countries.
Even if one fails, it doesn't cost much compared to procuring from
other countries.
India is a land of intelligence which we export as man power to other
countries whereas we keep the brainless politicians in India. You dont
need to have any sophisticated weapons to overpower other countries.
Send one corrupt brainless politician to each country and India will
be superpower in the next 5 years as these politicians are capable of
corrupting people like like virus on spree.
We have IITs and IIMs to produce best brains in technology and
management but we don't have the capacity to pay them and procure them
in India.
Could someone please tell me if at least one dept which is not corrupt
? however small it may be.
Super; Our guys are able to locate the crashed flight in no time. Keep
up the good work, crash few more and locate the wreckage in no time. We
can show this to world.
Sir: Though tragic, the continuing crashes of Indian Air Force aircraft
are inexcusable. Brilliant young officers and costly inventory are being
lost regularly. Is there an end in sight? Perhaps, the Indian Air Force
should be called, "Indian Crash Force."
Here we go again. I think the IAF is capable of even crashing a plane which has not taken off. Abyssmal!!!
We need a good core of Technicians to take care of our equipment or we will keep destroying the stuff faster than we can replace it.
As I understand C130J is one of the most reliable transport planes in the world with excellent
safety records. Hundreds of such planes are in use in the US and other countries and
several from different countries have been prssed into service to locate the missing MH370.
It is really baffling and deeply saddening to hear of such great loss by IAF. Could there be a
sabotage angle or poor training of the crews? Hope IAF would get to the bottom and let
people know the reasons, country has the rights to know for this costly and tragic loss of
lives and resources.
This time I don't think its responsibility of HAL. If there is some
fault in maintenance then its IAF who is responsible for maintaining
their planes. IAF who cannot maintain existing planes now want to build
planes. Great going. This aircraft is newly inducted and still such
incidence are happening. Who ever committed such mistake should be
punished and should create an example of the same, so that in future
such mistakes wont happen. The real problem is there is accountability.
Russian aircraft are more reliable than American ones and perform better
in robust conditions and are reliable for Indian conditions. hardware
works better and is economical for India.It is Great propaganda of the
Americans that superiority of technology and research will go so far
till the aircraft falls off the sky.
India had sepnt a huge amount of money in the last 10 years for purchasing defense equipments from western nations. We need to evaluate whether the spending of such a high amount of the tax payers money is worth? The IAF had accepted the war planes without proper quality check and hence the failure happened. The US must have delivered the scrapped goods to India after paying such huge amount of money
It was Navy and now IAF. Now all recruitments and promotions are based on caste and not on merit these things are bound to happen.
It is a real sad news for the Indian Air Force and the whole nation.
But what intrigues me the most is that why are there so many cavalry
related accidents taking place in the recent times.I am no expert in
military technology and that stuff but there has to be some reason,its
either the governing body or some constant carelessness.I hope we come
out this dark phase of mishaps soon and accomplish our dream of "Bharat
Mahan".
It is leadership, attitude that has taken more than a generation to develop. Starting from
schools, medias etc... The entire corrosion of culture as it manifests in corruption, rape, and
simply "me" first and don't give a damn about the fellow citizen. Need some strong
leadership and less so called " democracy". This is the military from God's sake.
There is a say 'A Horse knows its rider'.An american plane is suitable only its people and not to poor Indians.What the enquiry will reveal? Capped babus only will shout demanding free salutes!
America is India's (and BRICS') rival - if not enemy. How can we ever buy any defence equipment from them ? What if this happened in an actual war situation ?
Aircraft is a high maintenance item, not a toy. C130 is the work horse
of the U.S military.
Not only is it lowly on the part of the BJP to score political points on this incident by attempting to fix the blame on the government. It would be wise on the part of the BJP to shut up and let the CoI complete its investigations and share its findings first.
I have expressed many times, that RTI needs to be applicable to defence forces also to expose corruption both in terms of money and promoting incompetents bypassing competent but not pliable people.Intersted parties were spreading talks about the quality of US aircrafts over Russian ones.The basic point missed by the Pundits is about the bribes available from US corporations in USA without scrutiny from people in the absence of RTI responses.
There are so many airforces in the world have far greater safety records than that of IAF.
Why?
The causes are in the culture of not taking the responsibility for running the the organization
seriously. What are needed are training men and women with knowledge, skills, top class
maintenance, imparting deep sense of pride high degree of emphasis on quality control, the
analysis of problems etc.
Without these , do not expect better results.
It requires serious and quick analysis and action on prevention of such accidents in future.
This is a national issue and not a particular party issue. I hope Indian politicians seriously
consider no politicizing these issues. Media should stop publishing comments of politicians
who are not experts in this area.
its high time we started building our own planes
I am watching with dismay how free are our people to comment so freely on the Aircraft & the possible causes & even safety aspect , maintenance lapse ,pilots incapacity etc. It better to desist showering opinions when we don't have any knowledge about the matter.The whole thing is nevertheless a huge loss to the country & to the air force as well as to the bereaved families of the air force personnel.The same phenomenon occurred earlier also when air force lost air crafts more than war time. That time The govt had started screwing the armed forces by lowering their prestige & emoluments in comparison to the civilian employees.The problem of one rank one pension preceded such happenings.Now also the same problem still persists but our insensitive govt did not even wake now.When morale of forces running low & Ex servicemen have to fight cases in the courts to get their legitimate dues & the MOD files SLPs against all even the decisions of supreme court are not respected & the Contempts.
IAFâs C-130J Super Hercules aircraft -Rs. 6000- crore crashes- 5 poor souls perished. Last month it's the Submarine now it's the Aircraft. In case of submarine it was H2 released from battery.May have happened due to negligence and improper maintenance. In case of AP CM it was bad weather. The C-130J is one of the most reliable transport aircraft in the world. DRDO and HAL are to do better job.Weakest link has to be determined. Since the battery is a power pack many aircraft accidents are because of battery. Rarely it is used and maintenance staff forget about it.
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As long as HAL is located in Bangalore, India will never be able to build a plane. Mr. Anthony and the Family will be getting those commissions paid into Swiss bank accounts. The Civilian aeroplane SARAS was sabotaged by HAL long back. HAL has sabotaged TEJAS aircraft as well to favor TCS and Infosys IT companies.
As long as integrity and honesty are ignored and supplanted by self interest and money at all cost for a few individuals, these kind of incidents will continue to happen and increase and not decrease. Defence contract purchases have ended up being a lucrative way of making money for a few individuals.
These corrupt souls do not think about Mother Bharat, gives a damn about quality of purchases and the potential to cause several deaths. All they are interested is how many hundred or thousands of crores they can profit by this decision.
They think that they are going to live for ever and their sons and grandsons would be living for ever and amass thousands of crores in ill-gotten wealth. They seem to forget the dictum "What goes around must come around". Mother nature has a funny way of delivering justice; and when it delivers, you're not around to realize it. What a shameful act!
AS it is a very shocking news to be heard last one is the submarine now
the aircraft in all of these incidents the fault was not of the machine
operators but of the government because the operators pre informed to
their bosses that these machines are not be in working conditions now
but there were the orders from the top rulers that one have to follow.
may all those souls RIP.
Where does the problem lies?
-Western countries meddle in the affair of south Asia to make us
believe that only owning super aircraft like C-130 could save us.
-There has been no effort from their side to make the world more
peaceful. If inter-country rivalry is minimized then huge sum of
monies could be diverted form military expenditure into
development sector.
-Is it now wise to put those thousands of crore into the hand of
DRDO rather than into the US? We are not on the brink of war. Let
the DRDO become self sufficient in manufacturing world class
military equipment. There is no dearth of talent. Offer sharp
brains good package and friendly work environment,they will not
migrate into the US.
-Just having the super aircraft does not make a country super
power. The capability to run them efficiently is equally
important.
-Are our Officers competent enough to operate on such foreign made
machines?
-What is the responsibility of the govt in the event of such
accidents?
Guys do not make early conclusion.
IAF team : Plane is new, received excellent training, do proper
root cause analysis in short time and implement the same to save
the other such machines currently in operation.
Many people are commenting that we are buying junks from the junk sellers.No one stopped India to make non junks! After 60 years of independence Indian did not make any fighter planes. May be India has the talent to make a working thing as a junk. India should stick to software.
Interesting to note the number of people who are focusing more on the
1000's of crores than the 5 poor souls that perished. As usual this PTI
article has few details of what caused the crash. Also interesting is
the number of people blindly defending the air force.
If civilian aircraft had the same rate of failure they would be
dropping out of the sky every week. I have relatives in the military.
Despite the bravado, they are no less incompetent and corrupt than most
government departments.
Last month it's the Submarine now it's the Aircraft. There may be 1000
different random causes for these unfortunate accidents but I strongly
believe that they all happened due to negligence and improper
maintenance. We are acclimatized to these, so this will be another
issue pushed under the carpet. SC should really look step into these
issues.
The C-130J is one of the most reliable transport aircraft in the world. Unfortunately, we have just had a crash and it is baffling no doubt. An appeal to all those who are ridiculing this aircraft. Please reserve your judgements until we know the cause of the crash. There is no doubt that we have had more than our share of accidents in the last couple of years, especially more recently. But, cool heads must prevail to overcome the grave issues.
yes yes BJP , quickly make it a political issue. Only a few more weeks left.
1000 crore plane of IAF crashes ( apart from 5 deaths ) !!!
after the mig21(10 crore) crashes , its a huge jump ,
when imports from foreign countries ends up to this, its time to re look
in our resources and capabilities and pump that money in DRDO and HAL
for developing and modernising our indigenous establishments .
An apparel,at least,more often than not,makes a man.
the investigation should also focus on what junk the US sold us.. The
USA is traditionally known to sell 3rd rate products at high prices
minus key components.The aircraft is supposed to be a new one and there
shouldn't have been any maintenance issues as such.I would like to know
if such contracts have an insurance or guarantee clause and what happens
if it is proved that there was manufacturing defect in the aircraft.
The unnecessary loss of life of our brave airmen saddens us deeply.
What Russian aircraft are more reliable than American ones under Indian
conditions. Great propaganda that superiority of technology and research
will go so far till the aircraft falls off the sky.
Submarine sinduraksha,sinduratna,C130 Hercules, bribes ,sabotage entered indian military,
you can hear every month starts from now
A new kind of war against our military , how much you spend to strengthen military , this
illiterate politicians greedy politicians with no strong policies will get back us to the starting
point .........wasting people's money.
Does anyone wonder as to why so many tragic events are happening to our military? Is it the technical fault? Really....?
The finger should point to the person in the defence ministry i.e AK Anthony! Since he has become defence minister the military of India has gone to new low. Look at the events: General VK singhs' issue, Navy chief resigns, Submarine disaster, Augusta chopper deal, Scams with Military trucks... these are just few events that comes into my mind. Perhaps there are many unaccountable issues that needs to be taken note of!
Someone should be accountable and responsible to these issues rather than point to an isolated technical event.
At the rate at which aircraft are falling down soon Airforce will be
left with no aircraft. All airforces have better flying record
including Pak airforce.
To start with ALL aircraft should be grounded to prevent further loss
of life and aircraft.
To find out whether this is due to incompetence or sabotage a
investigation from independent agency must be done.
Officers at the highest level in the airforce & defense ministry must
be court marshalled to fix accountability.
India and Indians are wasting colossal amount of money! These are
very robust planes with a superb track record in the inventory of many
countries. But, why in India we screw it up with all kinds of crashes
big time? We need to check our policies if right people are recruited
and trained properly. And, it starts with scrapping away at our
reservation policies that has done nothing but setting our standard
backwards. We are very serious about these expensive toys but do not
have it within us to take care. It is sad that this is coming after
the debacle from the Navy that brought junk from the former Soviet
Union! Sick and tired of our polices at the government level that has
given us nothing but mounting miseries one government after another
after independence! 6K crore down the drain!
@Nitin, You call the Hercules an "old machine" . I recall these aircraft are no more than a few years old. If you are implying the design itself is a few decades old, be aware that the C130-Hercules has an excellent safety record with many airforces around the world, with US airforce alone possessing a few hundred. Also, there are many aircrafts that are several decades old in design (747, B-52 etc) and are still being produced.
its like a nightmere of india. who can not handdle m advanced machine ........ i suggest to iaf. please retire the mig.21 or suggest to take care of maintance of all defence related machine ....thanks...
Very tragic indeed. It is high time to develop indigenous systems. It is
a pity that the LCA project had never been given any importance, thanks
to the bribery hungry persons at every level!
The very least the Defence Minster can do is to resign immediately.
The defence forces have had a record number of high profile disasters
under his benign watch.
CRASH ALL OUR HOPES ARE VANISHING. WHAT A TRAGEDY?
Please pray for the pilots on board.One of these brave souls was close
acquaintance of mine.Pray for their families .My heart reaches out to
him .It's tragic and terrifying.May his soul rest in peace
please dont comment here and there as soon as u hear about a news. wait
for some results come out. passing expert comments is always easy way
out....
We don't have the facts of the case, but before blaming the supplier
or maintenance please realize these are rather new planes. The C130
is extremely proven - with 4 turboprop engines, is a very safe, secure
and stable aircraft. Daylight and perfect weather, and it can safely
land even with 3 engines out (and possibly glide to a landing strip
with all 4 out).
When cargo is improperly secured, comes loose and shifts around it can
have a disastrous effect on weight distribution and lead to a crash.
Alternatively, a rapidly spreading fire can get out of hand quickly.
The "chalta hai" attitude cannot work in the military and any evidence
of this should be dealt with at the root itself. I hope it is not
slipshod airmanship that has caused this disaster.
Tragic !
Loosing brave men and old machines. I guess the baton has passed from Navy to IAF.
All these accidents is because of poor maintenance since these Aircraft are not indigenous. The technicians are not properly aware of the procedures. India should accelerate it's process of indigenous production.
Our children are mal nourishes. Our women are degraded. We continue to buy junk from both the Russians and the USA. What fools we are!
Scam every where. how can this happen in Defense.
Country / UPA is wasting the resources rather than utilising for prime needs like Defense and security which is back bone for the country.
6000 crores very significant considering the economic growth.
Through probe need to be ordered and accused need to be punished.
Ridiculous Indian Government!! RIP IAF crew
This is a major setback to Indian Air Force. "Routine" - This is not at all routine. "US-made C-130J Super Hercules Special Operations transport aircraft: 6000 Cr" - with so much amount of taxpayers money, it can't be routine at all. Need some serious insight.
Terrible loss
This is a sad news for the relatives of the victims and for all those who knew them. But this incident raises the question of the interest that Indian politicians have given in recent years to the military question in Indian society. Recently this newspaper in an edito mentioned all the problems faced by the Indian military institution and its members in particular. On the eve of elections we have seen here and there some interest towards soldiers. But they do not solve the problem which is the distrust towards the military in Indian society . It is a distrust whose origins are historical and which has not been solved until today. The irony in this tragedy is that the current leaders had welcomed the acquisition of these aircrafts. But what is the use of the material, if we do not give more considerations to the men and women who use the equipment. This is perhaps the main lesson to be learned from this tragedy.But will our "politics" have this ability
6000 Crore, as a country we could have done lot more than crashing a US made war toy and loosing 5 men.
Terrible waste of resource - men & money !!
With every crash, some new learning is involved - those that indicate flaws of machine, misdeeds of humans or involvement of adverse weather - and there are multiple agencies who stand to gain with such learning. For instance, here, as user of Hercules, IAF system undergoes new learning, other support aviation agencies learn, and so do meterological institutions. Significantly enough, Lockheed Martin also gains fresh insights, and these inputs are circulated to all other Air forces that use Hercules. Lockheed, in fact, goes a step ahead. If design flaws are involved, its new series will be modified altering the flawed design. For the IAF, the uppermost question should be should we really sacrifice the lives of our pilots and support flying staff to this extent. This question is important, because all these years, our pilots sacrificed their lives to improve the systems of Russian aircrafts. Do we martyr such sacrifices and start afresh to correct US aircrafts ?
When China was acting aggressively, India merely had US made Hercules Aircarfts to Land in DBO sector,it seems that was only a showoff that actual military display.
We also had HAL unable to deliver trainer jets to airforce. After that The Navy's condition is now known to everyone,
What it seems now it that NOTHING GOOD HAS BEEN DONE TO THE DEFENCE INSTITUTIONS BY THIS GOVERNMENT, because last time we had any significant military acquisitions was from Russia, under Indira Gandhi, during Bangladesh Liberation War.
One that they did do is that after the cancellation of AUGUSTA-Westland chopper deal they ordered a few US choppers for VVIPs, as per media reports.
Today India is the most backward nation in entire World in too many aspects, despite the given size and potential India always had.
Government of India must get Nobel Prize for Mismanagent in Governance.
A tragedy no doubt caused by poor maintenance and general disorder
Why is that this news item doesn't make it to the top headline? Why is
it that no media house shows the investigation report when it is
complete?
Sad to hear the news. Every crisis brings out possible NEW solutions to reduce accidents by thought process of ACADEMIC works. As an Academician during my tenure[2008-2011] at IGNOU Bangalore HAD DEVELOPED , with the help of 35 Aeroexperts in the city a BTech[ATM] program - A contemporary and novel GRADUATE program in Aircraft Technology and Maintenance FOCUSING on the Maintenance Aspects [ as opposed to Design emphasis of current Aeronautics programs]. The details has been given to Chief IAF through their HQ on 12 Dec 2013All relevant documents are with your Air.Cmdr. Surinder Mahindra at Air Hq. This program generates manpower[ of KNOWLEDGE and SKILL based] to maintain health of "Flying Machines". I wish IAF utilizes the knowledge base created. BEST WISHES.
Like our government, the IAF too is manned by incompetent people these
days !
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