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IAF to resume MiG-21 flights

Indicating this, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy said that the court of inquiry ordered to probe the crashes had cleared the upgraded versions for flying operations.

"The go ahead would be given later this week," he said.

The crashes have led to the grounding of 72 of the fighters powered by the R-25 engines now being manufactured in India under licence from the Russian manufacturers - Mikoyan Bureau.

Krishnaswamy said the grounded aircraft would be examined minutely squadron-by-squadron and also indicated that the court of inquiry may be given more time to allow experts to conduct a thorough check of these aircraft.

The IAF has ordered upgradation of a total of 125 MiG-21 BIS fighters with Russian and Israeli help. While ten upgraded aircraft have already been inducted into the IAF, Krishnaswamy said that the entire upgraded fleet would be inducted by 2004-2005.

The upgraded version MiG-21-93 is powered by the same R-25 engine, which allegedly failed causing last weeks' crash of older MiG-21 (type 75) variants.

A total of 84 MiG-21 fighters have crashed during the past five years prompting two key parliamentary committees - Public Accounts Committee and Standing Committee - to demand phasing out of the aircraft.

However, officials pointed out that the two aircraft (type 75 variants), which had crashed last week had not reached the end of their technical lifespan of 2,685 flying hours.

Nevertheless, Russian experts have been called in to join the probe into the failure of the fighter jet engines.

Top IAF officials said the experts would carry out comprehensive checks on the R-25 engines.

Though the upgraded jets were powered by the same engine, they had more sophisticated ancillary systems and a more powerful gearbox, they added.

"Nevertheless, checks would also be carried out on these aircraft too," they said.

PTI

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