Lack of proper training causes most fighter plane crashes: Min

New Delhi, Feb 22 (UNI) Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said lack of proper training was found to be the major reason for the large number of fighter plane accidents.

The non-availability of experienced trainers and the fleet for enabling the trainee to put in sufficient number of flying hours was the biggest cause of these accidents, as found by a committee of experts, Mr Mukherjee told the Rajya Sabha during question hour.

He said the panel, which submitted its report last year, did not attribute any aircraft accident to poor maintenance. However, a number of accidents were attributed to technical defects like failure of components or systems, material failure, system malfunction and design deficiency.

The committee found that accidents due to human error were at 47 per cent, four per cent due to service errors, while the share of technical reasons and others was 39 and 10 per cent respectively, he said.

The Minister said the number of accidents had, however, come down in recent years but still not to the desired levels. In cases of technical snags, the government had been taking up the matter with the manufacturers.

''There was no question of covering anybody or hiding anything in this matter as it was an issue of national security,'' he said.

UNI NAZ LR ND1245