New Delhi: The frontline Sukhoi fighter jets of the Indian Air Force (IAF) are flying again.
Nearly a month after one of the IAF Su-30MKI crashed near Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, the aircraft were flown for the first time once again last week, an IAF officer said.
"Yes, they (Sukhois) flew last week," the IAF officer said, when asked about the probe going on into the air crash on April 30 that killed a fighter pilot.
He, however, said "The flying happened on a regular sortie as the aircraft had never been grounded".
"As IAF had maintained, Sukhois were never grounded. While everyone around counted the number of days it did not fly, they failed to note the day it did," he added.
After the crash, one of the two pilots - Wing Commander M V Munje - bailed out safely while Wing Commander P S Narah was killed.
The IAF had not flown the Sukhois and ordered a probe into the mishap and precautionary checks on all the 60 aircraft from the three operational Sukhoi squadrons of the force.
"The joint probe by IAF inspectors and 20 specialists from the Russian original equipment manufacturers is still in progress," the IAF officer said, adding that they would take some more time to complete their inspections and give a final report.
Comments
0 comment