A Tejas aircraft crashes first time in 23 years, on way back from Bharat Shakti

While Tejas had its own set of system troubles that pilots have encountered & given feedback on, aircraft is considered to be sturdy enough for fliers to remain in control.

File photo of LCA Tejas flying during an air show | ANI

New Delhi: For the first time in 23 years, a Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) crashed on its way back Tuesday from the country’s maiden “Bharat Shakti” exercise in nearby Pokhran – a joint tri-services display – which was watched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The lone pilot ejected safely and the plane crashed into a hostel in the outskirts of Jaisalmer. It was not immediately known if the ejection was by mistake or there was an engine failure.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) issued a statement, saying the aircraft crashed during an “operational training sortie”. “The pilot ejected safely. A Court of Inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident,” the short statement said.

The Jaisalmer base currently does not have a full-fledged squadron and the Tejas had come in for ‘Bharat Shakti’ that showed off capabilities of Indian systems.

Sources in the defence and security establishment said that a bunch of three Tejas aircraft was launched from the Jaisalmer base.

First crash since Tejas inception in 2001

This is the first crash in the 23-year history of the aircraft that has been flying since 2001. The Tejas were inducted into the IAF in 2016.

While the Tejas has had its own set of system troubles that pilots have encountered and given feedback on, the aircraft is considered to be sturdy enough for fliers to remain in control.

The Tejas was first in considerable trouble in October 2020 when a pilot, Group Captain Varun Singh, managed to avert a mid-air emergency. There was a sudden loss of cockpit pressurisation at a high altitude, but Singh managed to land the aircraft.

Singh unfortunately was killed in the helicopter crash involving the then Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat in December 2021.

Singh was posthumously feted with the Shaurya Chakra on Independence Day for his handling of Tejas. The award citation read: “ …there was rapid loss of altitude, with the aircraft pitching up and down viciously. Despite being in extreme physical and mental stress in a life-threatening situation, he maintained exemplary composure and regained control of the aircraft, thereby exhibiting exceptional flying skills.”

It is learnt that he was advised to eject but he chose to land the aircraft instead.

Indira Gandhi started Tejas project

In 1983, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s government rolled out a project to build a new LCA as replacement for the Russian MiG-21s.

The plan was to carry out the first flight of the new aircraft by 1994. However, the first prototype of the LCA flew only in 2001. Then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee christened the LCA “Tejas”.

In December 2013, the Tejas got the Initial Operational Clearance and, in 2019, the IAF was given the first aircraft with Final Operational Clearance.

ThePrint in 2021 had interviewed Air Marshal Philip Rajkumar (Retd), who became the oldest man to have flown Tejas the year before. As a test pilot, he was in the hot seat for the fighter’s first 98 flights as the program director of the project.

The IAF in 2021 ordered 83 Tejas Mk 1A, which comes with improvements to include mid-air refuelling, enhancing combat ability, and maintainability improvements through the incorporation of Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, Electronic Warfare (EW) suite and Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missile capabilities.

(Edited by Tikli Basu)