“Aviation is a Risky Business” is something every person involved in aviation has heard. Humans since times unknown have tried to achieve flight, from using very rudimentary to maniacal means, many tried to achieve the ability to take to the skies & many perished in the process. Modern flight is historically credited to Wright Brothers who took off the ground in their powered aircraft in Dec 1903. A lot has changed in last 120 years but despite all the advances & lessons learned, Aviation still remains a Risky Business.
March 12 2024 was the ill-fated day when we witnessed first crash & loss of indigenous Tejas, 23 years old impeccable record took a hit. To his credit the pilot on-board tried to control the situation till the last minute & when he realised that the loss was inevitable, he ejected only after ensuring that despite crashing in a crowded area the aircraft doesn’t cause any on ground casualty.
As soon as the aircraft crashed, the citizens & the airforce both rushed to the site, the pilot who was safely on ground & was being tended by the villagers.
IAF has ordered a Court of Inquiry (COI) to ascertain the causes & generally it is best to wait for the inquiry to finish before we jump to any conclusions but in this case we have a video which was taken from ground by a villager which gives us a fair bit of crucial details of the incident.
In the video we can see that the pilot has ejected out of the aircraft & the aircraft is gliding down towards the crash site. No apparent damage to the aircraft like fire or smoke is visible & the aircraft looks like it was on a landing approach with its landing gears down. This narrows down the probable causes which could have led to the accident & allows us to speculate
As stated, in video the aircrafts landing gears were down & it seemed to be on a landing approach & further open sourced analysis done showed that the aircraft was heading towards Jaiselmer airport & it crashed around 4 to 5 kms short of the runway, the doubts about pilot losing control or issues with aircrafts control systems or hydraulics both were dispelled after seeing the video because the aircraft was doing a very controlled glide, there was no diving or rolling tendency & the aircraft was very stable even with no pilot on-board, this highlights that its Fly by Wire & flight control computer were doing their job.The landing gear being down shows that the pilot hydraulic systems were operating fine.
As all these systems seem to be working fine, so this most likely narrows the fault to a Probable Engine Issue. Tejas uses Ge F-404IN20 engine which is a derivative or variant of Ge F404 engines. Thousands of these have been produced & they are very efficient reliable engines but as anything & everything, these can also develop snags due to a variety of reasons.
Engine is a critical complex component which has thousands of parts, many ofwhich operate in very extreme conditions & temperatures. A lot of internal & external things can lead to failure of engine. Some of the possible issues which can happen with engine are
Compressor stall due to restriction in air flow which can be caused during extreme maneuvering, this seems to not be the case here as no extreme maneuvering is witnessed & LCA’s FCC is designed to prevent & recover in such conditions.
Compressor stall caused by turbulence created by other aircraft but this also seems to not be the case here.
Engine stalling or failure caused by Ingestion of foreign object or debris (FOD) or bird strike, while these two are very probable, chances of this incident being Bird Strike/ingestion are much higher than FOD ingestion which normally happens during landing & take off due to debris from runway being sucked in.
Another possibility is of an Engine flameout during landing, this can also happen due to variety of reasons, some being similar to the previously stated & considering the aircraft was on an approach & lower altitude this can be an issue as for an engine re-ignition there are a set of procedures which have to be followed & that requires time, in aviation your flight altitude is your time. A low flying aircraft often doesn’t have time to recover from mistakes or malfunctions.
Other than these, an engine has thousands of components, fuel pumps, oil pumps, various seals & numerous components which ensure smooth operation & even in best of days & despite stringent maintenance any of these can fail which can lead to a catastrophe. While these are somewhat reduced in a twin engine fighter where aircrafts are able to fly on a single engine in case one fails, single engine aircrafts like Tejas, F16, Gripen & so many others do not have the luxury of losing an engine during flight.
All this said these are observations & speculations based on what we have witnessed. Even if we can narrow down to this loss being due to engine failure, the detailed report telling how, why, what, when etc will only be known after the COI concludes.
Yes, none of us wanted to see the perfect safety record of the desi bird go down but it was something inevitable. Accidents are not a matter of “IF” but “when”. Any & Every machine will witness accidents over their operational life, what we should be proud of is the excellent product which we have created, a product which flew for over 2 decades, numerous flying hours & 10000+ sorties without any loss, this in itself is a testament of a product quality & safety.
When it comes to accidents, – “the only way any airforce can ensure zero flight accidents is, by ensuring none of their aircrafts takes to the skies”
Even an eagle crashes at times but that doesn’t stop it from soaring high & ruling the skies.
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IAF’s Tejas aircraft plunges in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer