Tragedies will always happen, but the greater tragedy is what could have been prevented happens. The MiG aircraft, the backbone of the Indian Air Force, was once called the flying coffin.
Presenting shocking statistics to Parliament, Defence Minister A K Antony said in Parliament in 2012 that over the past 40 years, India had lost more than half of its MiG combat fleet of 872 aircraft. Till April 19 (2012), “482 MiG aircraft accidents took place’’.
These crashes led to the loss of precious lives of 171 pilots, 39 civilians and eight persons from other services. The cause of the accidents were “both human error and technical defects,” admitted the minister.
The unwritten code of the armed forces is senior pilots could never point out the shortcomings in the aircraft. The super bosses have their own point to prove that MiGs are very safe and airworthy.
Since the year 2000, there have been 28 major naval incidents involving submarines: 10 American submarines, six Russian, five British, two Canadian, one Chinese, two Indian, one Australian, and one French.
It is now known that the batteries on INS Sindhuratna were not changed during its refit that ended in December 2013. This submarine is a diesel-electric vessel, and runs on battery power while submerged. That power is provided by 240 lead acid batteries that weigh about 800 kg each. These batteries tend to release flammable hydrogen gas, especially when they are being charged, and submarines have safety systems to address emergencies arising out of this. Old batteries are even worse.
The submarine was powered by Russian batteries during the early years of its life in the Indian Navy. Later, the Navy began procuring batteries from an established Indian vendor, Mumbai-based Standard Batteries Ltd, later bought out by Exide.
A Hyderabad-based competitor, HILIFE took the Indian Navy to court, saying its products were superior and cheaper. The Defence Ministry decided to end the “single vendor situation”, a situation that is avoided in acquisition.
As the web of litigation hit battery purchases, leading to a shortage which could have caused the tragedy.