The Mirage 2000H Tragedy

The Crash :

A Mirage 2000H (H for Hindustan) trainer jet crashed at HAL Airport in Bangalore on 1 Feb killing 2 young pilots - Squadron leaders Samir Abrol and Siddharth Negi . 

It was shocking and traumatic, especially for some of us folks in Sobha Palladian who heard the explosion as their  jet burst into flames. And many of us saw the leaping orange flames and the black billowing smoke  that continued to spread across the sky for over 20 minutes. And we saw two huge fire-engines  rush out of the HAL gates , helicopters hovering above and ambulances  screaming past our gates.

I could not sleep properly that night as I could not stop recollecting the days incidents and imagining what those two young pilot would have gone thru during those final moments of the crash.

And  all of the next day, I was sort of depressed and unsettled and sad – as if I had lost one of my dearest friends.

On the day of the crash, my WhatsApp as inundated with messages, photos and commentaries and comments on the crash. The TV and the on line media did their bit of comprehensive reporting. And I went thru them all, feeling sadder. 

The next day the papers covered the incident in more graphic details and quotes from ex servicemen  and the online media had added more footage of the crash. And I read these too and got sadder still.

During  my morning walk I could not enjoy my music and had to shut it off and walk in silence.

And I was in alignment with the  a huge sympathy wave for the two pilots and people expressed their grief and anguish at the sad demise and prayed for their souls and for their family as well. A tragic end to two brave hearts.

And along with this I also read the endless stream of accusations heaped on HAL for their shoddy jobs, their lack of accountability and for being an inefficient and callous organisation that has scant disregard for the air force pilots. And even the Air Chief Marshal B S  Dhanoa said "We have made concessions for HAL, but will the enemy make any concession for us when we face them in battle?"

And every one on the Whats app, Twitter and FB were unanimous!

HAL was the culprit and they passed the judgement –

HAL were solely responsible for this crash and the untimely death of two brave hearts Sqd Leader Abrol and Sqd Leader Negi.

Two days later everything was back to normal. And people went back to sharing and forwarding unwanted messages, pictures and videos &  jokes on their WhatsApp.

And I wondered, is that all ?? 

As self righteous citizens we concluded that have done our bit.

We expressed outrage over the crash.

We praised and prayed for the two dead plots. We used wonderful words , called them heroes & martyrs etc.

We showered sympathy on their families

We identified & pointed out the villain, HAL.

And we accused and passed our collective judgement on HAL !

And after our job well done, we moved on.

And we left the rest of  the inquiry and investigation to the concerned authorities and went about our business as usual.

Ashtey!

And I wondered , is that all ??

To me, even after so many days, life is not as usual.  Every time I walk by the HAL boundary wall  to buy at Capitol hyper-market, or hear the roar of the revving engines and the fighter jets taking off and landing after their sorties, I feel an uneasy sensation in my spine. So what do I do ??

Sadly, I am not a hot shot investigative reporter who could snoop around, talk to people and catch them off guard and dig up the dirt and come up with a front page expose nailing the culprits.

Nor am I a crusader, fighting for justice for the two bereaved families, filing PILs and RTIs and leading dharnas.

So in my limited capacity I went thru all the info available on the net, on the DefenceNews sites on the Mirage2000 deal.

And I actually came up with more questions than answers !!

Whose fault is it anyway ?

25 years ago, I headed the support division of an IT company that manufactured and sold hardware & software products  and delivered hardware devices and software support. And with a fine-tuned spare parts  inventory management and logistics  operation, a remote diagnostics team, and on-site hardware and software specialists we managed to deliver premium services guaranteeing 99% up-time on large computer installations, mainframes, network infrastructure and high end workstations installed country wide.

And I learnt the basics of support delivery and fault diagnosis. We would analyse tons of data on incidents of failure and draw the famous Pareto Charts !

And I concluded that causes for breakdowns can be broadly classified under 3 categories – faulty product, faulty people, faulty processes and a combination of these..

Faulty Product??

  

Was the crash caused due to substandard component/assembly supplied by the OEMs?

Or was it due to these assemblies/components getting worn out much before their rated flying lifetime. Or any other similar reasons related to the aircraft itself (its age and end of life)??

Faulty People?? 

Was the crash caused due to the faulty workmanship by the HAL staff – carelessness or improper training or whatever? Or was it the Pilots’ error??

Faulty Processes?? 

Was the crash caused due to faulty repair and QC and certification processes?? How could the QC team clear this craft for a flight if it had a such a major fault that could lead to a fatal crash? Or how could the HAL’s own test pilots fly  2 sorties in this same aircraft and not be able to detect or predict such a major fault that could lead to a fatal crash??

And remember,

One two-seat trainer crashed on 25 February 2012.

Another two-seater crashed on 5 March 2012.^[38] 

And the people in the Air force and HAL did not learn enough to prevent another similar disaster.

Sadly on 1 February 2019, a third two-seat trainer crashed and killed two pilots. A colossal waste of Rs 300+ Crores and two precious lives!

Act of God??

There are many times when certain incidents just defy logical reasoning.

1 Feb Friday 10.30 AM to 12 noon was Rahukalam!!

Rahukaalam or the period of Rahu is a certain period of time every day that is considered inauspicious for any new venture according to Indian Vedic astrology . – Wiki.

And I am sure any ‘Jyotishi’ (astrologer) worth his salt would be able to backtrack the events, read the horoscopes of the two pilots and match it with the stellar configuration at the time of take off and declare that this had to happen!

And he would have pronounced: It was a bad muhurat for them– a yamagandam. And if the pilots  had  pre-poned their take off by 15 min, the disaster could have been avoided .

So whose fault is it anyway??

The Product: Miarge 2000H:

The Dassault Mirage 2000 is a French multi role, single-engine fourth-generation jet fighter manufactured by Dassault  Aviation. It was designed in the late 1970s as a lightweight fighter to replace the Mirage III for the French Air Force(Armée de l'Air). 

A total of 601 crafts were made during its lifetime production from 1978 to 2007.

India purchased around 50 of these at Rs 133 Crores apiece.

The last 10 were delivered in 2007. 

This was the last batch of  Mirage2000s before the  production line was closed down!

Question: Why would any responsible person  buy such a hi-tech and expensive hardware in its end of life period??

And within 5 years, why would anyone sign up an upgrade deal for these at Rs 167 crores a piece (original cost 133 crores!)?

Chk it out on TOI March 5, 2013  news clip.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/18804336.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

More questions later…

Krish..