Prolonged use of social media behind 2013 fighter jet crash: Air Chief Marshal

Bengaluru, Sep 15: In a shocking revelation, Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa said that the cause for the 2013 Indian air force fighter jet crash was because the pilot was sleep deprived and the reason behind this was excessive use of social media.

"Everybody appears to be spending long hours on social media, late nights. Most flight briefings, sometimes, are as early as 6 am and pilots haven't had enough sleep," he said during the 57th Indian Society of Aerospace Medicine conference organised in Bengaluru.

Referring to the 2013 incident, he said that "We had an unfortunate air crash at Uttarlai (near Barmer in Rajasthan) in the year 2013 that resulted because of continuous sleep deprivation for a number of days. This is something which is a new challenge for us because of the changes in our society," he said.

Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa also urged the Institute of Aerospace Medicine to create a system to identify whether pilots had enough sleep before flying sorties. "Earlier if a pilot had one drink too many, the bar man would know. If he failed to notice, the others would know and he would be laid off flying for the day. Today we even have breath analysers," he said. We need a system where one can find out if a pilot had enough sleep, he added.