Another Sea Harrier crashes...

We've been discussing this issue on Goanet over the past day or so.

Below are some articles written in the past. Unfortunately, the media in New Delhi doesn't seem to see this as much of an issue. Maybe it has nothing to do with the location of Dabolim, but more to do with the choice of the Sea Harriers as a suitable aircraft costing billions ofrupees. FN

PS: All the articles date back to past years, maybe two or more.

PPS: The second report is not related to Sea Harriers, and has to do with a mid-air collision. But there could be some pointers there....

Goa sees latest in string of Sea Harrier crashes; airport back in action From Frederick Noronha

PANAJI (Goa), Dec 17 (IANS): Thursday noon's crash-landing at Goa's Navy-controlled Dabolim airport continues a long string of mishaps in India involving this sophisticated air-defence, surface-attack andreconiassance British aircraft.

Before noon Thursday, an Indian Navy Sea Harrier crash-landed. Two pilots, including a trainee, ejected safely. The aircraft is learnt to have crashed on the runway during landing at a short height.

Traffic at Dabolim, Goa's lone airport that gets international flights on the weekends, was temporarily closed. Incomding flights from nearby Indian cities were delayed at their respective airports.

In 1983-1984, India obtained a batch of six Sea Harrier Mark 51s, apart from two tandem-seat "T.60s" for use off their carrier INS Vikrant.

Ten more Mark 51s and a T.60 were ordered in 1985 and delivered in 1989-1991, with another batch of seven Mark 51s and a fourth T.60 ordered and delivered after that, for a total of 23 Mark 51s and four T.60s. Two more T.60s, which were modified from RAF surplus T.4s, wereobtained in the 1990s as attrition replacements.

The Indian Sea Harriers have operated off both the aircraft-carrier Vikrant and the INS Viraat, previously the HMS Hermes. The Vikrant was refitted with a ski jump in 1991, which forced the retirement of the carrier's French Breguet Alize maritime patrol aircraft. The Vikrant was retired in in 1996 but the Viraat, with a 12-degree ski jump,stayed on in service.

Military statistics indicate however that a number of Sea Harriers have been lost in accidents here. This includes losses during accidents in May 1988 (near Goa), June 1988 (Chengalpatu district), June 1992, Dec 1992, Aug 1994, Feb 1996 (missing during nightflying oversea from Goa), Sept 1997 (in the sea off Goa), Nov 1998 (in Indian Ocean), May 2001(near Canacona, Goa), Aug 2003 (off the Goa sea).

The Sea Harrier, as its "FRS" (flight-reconnaissance-strike) designation implied, was intended to be a multi-role aircraft, suitedfor air combat.

As its primary target was expected to be Soviet Bear-class turboprop reconnaissance and missile-attack aircraft, the Sea Harrier's subsonic speed was not regarded as a major limitation.

The Harrier emerged from the P.1127 / Kestrel by a complicated and more-or-less lucky sequence of events. The aircraft that resulted, though suffering from a number of limitations in performance, range, and warload, proved extremely useful, and became an important front-line asset for both the Royal Air Force and the US Marine Corps(USMC).

In 1966, Britain's planned CVA-01 class aircraft carriers were cancelled, apparently ending the Royal Navy's involvement in fixed-wingcarrier aviation.

However beginning in the early 1970s the first of a new class of "through deck cruisers" was planned, carefully named to avoid the term "aircraft carrier" to increase the chances of funding.

These ships would eventually become the Invincible class aircraft carriers. With little modification, a 'ski-jump' was added to the end of the 170m deck, the carriers could operate a small number of STOVLjets.

In Britain, earlier versions of the Sea Harrier were ordered by the Royal Navy in 1975. Sea Harriers claimed successes in air combat in the Falklands (or the Malvinas) War with Argentina.

India purchased 24 Sea Harrier FRS.51s, a version of FRS.1, 23 of which remain in service.

In 2002 the UK Ministry of Defence announced plans to withdraw the Sea Harrier from service by 2006. The aircraft's replacement, the Lockheed-Northrop-BAE F-35, is not due until 2012 at the earliest however the UK's Ministry of Defence argues that significant expenditure would be required to upgrade the fleet for only six yearsservice.

Sea Harriers are capable of vertical/short take off and landing (VSTOL). Figures here indicate that the Indian Navy currently has some 17 Sea Harriers in its fleet, costing according to unofficial figuresapprox US$9 million each. (ENDS)

TOP PRIORITY * FIELD REPORT * URGENT

By Frederick Noronha

VASCO DA GAMA (Goa), Oct 1: Carpenters and other workers putting on finishing touches on a bungalow at Goa's port town of Vasco da Gama watched with amazement at the aerial fly-past, till they realised thatthe Ilyushins flying overhead were about to come crashing down on them.

"There are three bodies in the next room," said a shattered Prabhakar Acharya, 44, a migrant-carpenter from the coastal Karnataka region of Udupi. He was one of those lucky to escape from a bungalow being constructed, after a mid-air collision of the two crafts here Tuesdaymorning.

This time, it wasn't one of the V/STOL (Vertical/Short Take-Off and Landing) Sea Harriers -- quite a few of which have crashed in recent years -- that was making news. This time it was the relatively safe IL38, purchased from the erstwhile Soviet Union.

Ironically, the day of the tragedy -- which killed 15 people -- was to have marked the 25th anniversary and 30,000 hours of accident-free flying of Squadron 315. This squadron is made up of premier maritimereconnaisance Ilyushin 38 aircrafts.

The IL-38 is considered a "potent anti-submarine, anti-surface vessel platform", Navy officials had said prior to the illfated event. This squadron has participated in all major operations and exercises conducted by the Indian Navy since her commissioning on October 1,1977.

Flag Officer Goa Area Rear Admiral Sunil Damle voiced regret at a late evening press conference at the loss of the 12 navy officers and men. They have been identified as Lt Commanders R Saini, S K Yadav and Jaideep Dutta; Chief Air Artificer V Kumar, MCPOR J P Singh.

In the other aircraft were Lt Commanders K S Rathore, S K Dutta, Karadi and N Nirmal; MCPOR (Tel ) II ACM I Prakash, CHAA (ACMPE) AK Yadav andMCAA-I S George.

Indian Navy officials here also said the incident occurred at 9.45 am, and added that the colleagues were "highly experienced" fliers. Initial official reports said it was unclear the accident was caused bymechanical failure, malfunction or human reasons.

Both the Ilyushin Soviet-build crafts crashed just close to Goa's lone Navy-controlled Dabolim airport, and on a hillock on the outskirts of this coastal state's port town which is home to the sprawling navalstation.

One craft ploughed into the half-finished bungalow, while the other ended up as mangled parts in a fenced-off area across a road, less than a kilometre away. Nearby, at a few hundred metres distance, is acollege where clesses were underway.

By afternoon, Goa fire force personnel were seen tearing down the rubble, trying to rescue workers possibly still trapped inside. Crowds were seen thronging to the venue to the mishap, to see the hard-to-believe site, atop a hillock overlooking the azure Arabian Sea.

"We were looking at it (the crafts in the sky) and within two minutes we realised that one of the planes was hurtling down at us," Acharya, from the village of Hangargatti in nearby South Karnataka's Udipi taluktold this correspondent, speaking in Hindi.

On the site, Navymen were quick to cordon off the area.

Vasco-da-Gama, a crowded port town of nearly 100,000 named after a sixteenth century Portuguese explorer and today a navy base, was largely plunged into a power-failure, as one of the crashing aircrafts ploughed also into a 33KV hightension line supplying power to the area, before grinding to a halt largely wrecked.

Goa is home to INS Hansa, India's premier naval air base. Currently this small state is considered to have the country's largest naval airstation.

In recent years, it has however been plagued by repeated air crashes of its vertical-takeoff Sea Harrier aircrafts, for unexplained reasons.

Besides being home to the IL 38, the maritime anti-submarine aircraft built by the former USSR and part of Squadron 315, Goa has also been home to the French-built turbo-prop Alize aircrafts, the Sea Harriers, the Soviet TU142Ms, Kamov 25 anti-submarine helicopters, and Chetakhelicopters, among others.