Airliners-India

karatecatman · Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 4:29 pm Post subject: Grounding of IL-76 worries IAF

TIMES OF INDIA
Grounding of IL-76 worries IAF
TNN
3 November 2009

NEW DELHI: Russia’s move to ground its entire Ilyushin-76 fleet after one of the heavy-lift military aircraft crashed in Siberia on Sunday, killing
the 11 crew members on board, has sparked widespread concerns in India.

IAF has two IL-76 ‘Gajraj’ squadrons (around 12 aircraft in all), one based in Nagpur and other in Chandigarh, as well as six IL-78 mid-air refuellers in Agra. The aircraft crash in Russia on Sunday, soon after taking off from Mirny airport in the Sakha Republic, was the second such accident of IL-76, the mainstay of the Soviet and Russian air force since the 1970s, in less than a month.

“We’ve received no official word from Russia till now. We are trying to find out what led to the crash. Checks will be carried out on our IL-76s but there is no plan to ground them as of now,” said a senior IAF officer.

“Russia had also grounded its entire MiG-29 fleet earlier this year but we did not follow suit with our MiG-29 fighters. We’ve proper maintenance procedures in place and carried out extensive checks,” he added.

While IL-78 tankers acquired from Uzbekistan are relatively new, IL-76s were inducted from Russia in mid-1980s. Serviceability of IL-76s, which perform crucial strategic air-lift work for IAF, has been quite a problem.

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Russia Suspends All Il-76 Flights
Vinay Shukla/Moscow
Nov 02, 2009

Russia's Interior Ministry today grounded all Ilyushin Il-76 medium lift transport aircrafts, following a crash of a plane in which 11 crew members were killed, raising questions over the fate of the similar aircraft being operated by Indian Air Force.

"Pending the probe outcome, all flights Il-76 have been suspended on the orders of Commander-in-Chief of Interior Ministry Troops, Gen Nikolai Rogozhkin," Interior Troops spokesman Vasily Panchenkov was quoted as saying by ITAR-TASS.

On Sunday an Il-76 cargo plane of Interior Ministry Troops crashed shortly after take-off from Mirny airport in Russia's diamond mining region of Yakutia.

"Urgent technical inspection of all the aircraft in service with the Interior Ministry is underway, after which they will resume duty," Panchenkov said.

Indian Air Force has 17 of these aircrafts inducted in mid 80's and these planes are up for mid-life upgradation.

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