An Indian Navy aircraft participating in an aerobatic display as a part of the India Aviation 2010 exhibition at the Begumpet airport crashed into a building in the densely populated Bowenpally locality on the 3rd of March,2010.Two pilots were killed instantly and two residents of a two-storey building,a mother and son,were injured.Hyderabad could be said to have escaped a bigger catastrophe:had the aircraft fallen a few metres away,the casualty figure would have been much higher.
The Indian Navy has already initiated a detailed probe into the matter.A case under the Aircraft Act 1934 has been registered at the Bowenpally police and it should take a while for Navy officials to investigate this thoroughly.
Let us try to analyze what went wrong here.
There are three theories floating in the media regarding the cause of the crash.
1) There was a sudden problem or failure in the aircraft.
2) The pilots lost control during a vertical dive and could not pull back.
3) The aircraft's engine was probably struck by a bird.
It is up to the Navy to decide what went wrong;but I seriously feel that air shows should be regulated.
As much as I have read in the papers,i believe that the Surya Kiran Mk II aircraft and these two pilots belong to Navy's elite Sagar Pawan team that has performed over 100 successful shows since it was formed in 2003.Both the pilots have experience of flying over 1000 hours each and have performed extensively in such shows.
Yet considering the extraordinary stress that man and machine are put through in such aerobatic shows,increases the risk of accidents than in commercial aviation.The rhetoric question that arises from this tragedy is whether an air show was really required for an aviation exhibition summit,and more important,whether it was advisable to permit that at Hyderabad's Begumpet airport,which is set in now a densely populated area.The defense services generally use Independance day,Republic day,Airforce and Navy days to show their might and enthuse the youth to join the services.But it is time to regulate such strict shows over city skies.
Conducting them at busy civilian airport is a problem because of the heavy air traffic in such places,but that was not the case at the Begumpet airport.After shifting the civilian airport to a fine new location at Shamsabad,the avian population in the area has increased and the old drill to cordon them off does not continue.This seems to have enhanced the risk factor for the aircraft.
This is not the first air show,nor will it be the last.Keeping these parameters in mind the Defense Ministry and the Civil Aviation Ministry must come up with detailed and transparent guidelines for the conduct of such air shows in future.
"Aye mere watan ke logon....zara ankh me bhar lo pani..."
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