Accident Report

Sea Harrier crashes, pilot safe

Jatin Gandhi, Hindustan Times

Goa, December 25, 2007 First Published: 00:29 IST(25/12/2007)

Another Sea Harrier of the Indian Navy crashed at Dabolim Air Station in Goa on Monday morning while it was attempting a vertical landing. The pilot of the aircraft, Cdr Janak Bevli ejected to safety, an Indian Navy officer said.

The crash took place at 11.15 am when the pilot returning from a “routine sortie” was landing, the officer said.

“There has been no loss of any other property or person in the accident. A Board of Inquiry has been ordered to investigate the cause,” the officer said. Sources said that the pilot, Cdr Bevli, is among the most experienced fliers of the aircraft that the navy has. “He was attempting a vertical landing,” an official, who did not wish to be named, revealed.

With Monday’s crash, the total number of Sea Harriers with the navy has come down to 13. Since 1983, seven pilots have died in 17 crashes involving the Sea Harrier. India inducted a fleet of 30 Sea Harriers in 1983, using 25 of these for operational flying and the remaining to train pilots. More than half of the fleet is now gone, lost mostly to routine sorties.

In about the last one year, this is the fourth accident involving a Sea Harrier. The last crash involved another Sea Harrier that went down while trying to land on the Naval carrier INS Viraat during the Malabar naval exercises in the Bay of Bengal. Another fighter had plunged into the sea in Goa after it took off, killing the pilot. Sea Harrier pilots are considered the cream of naval fliers.

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Navy Sea Harrier crashes, pilot safe
25 Dec 2007, 0057 hrs IST,TIMES NEWS NETWORK & AGENCIES

PANAJI: A Sea Harrier fighter aircraft of the Navy crashed at Dabolim airport in Panaji on Monday morning while landing after a routine sortie but the pilot bailed out. Navy spokesman N V Kesari said an inquiry would be conducted to find out the cause of the crash at the Navy-controlled airport. Commander Janak Bewali was flying the plane when it crashed.

Airport director Paul Manickam said the incident did not affect air traffic as the airport is under naval control in the morning five days a week and therefore kept out of bounds for commercial planes.

Sources said the single-seater aging fighter crashed to the ground with a thud. This is the fourth accident involving a Sea Harrier in a year. Earlier this year, another had crashed while landing on aircraft carrier INS Viraat during a multi-nation naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal.

Another fighter nosedived into the Arabian Sea after taking off from the same airport months back killing the pilot. Yet another Harrier rammed into a wall while landing here but the pilot managed to bail out safely. Indian Navy purchased 30 Sea Harrier aircraft in late 1980s, using 25 for operational flying and five others for training. Over the years, the Navy has lost 11 Sea Harriers and the fighter planes have gone out of production from the British aerospace assembly lines.

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http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.php?Story_ID=12256
Sea Harrier crashes at Dabolim
NT News Service

Vasco, Dec 24 Indian Navy’s Sea Harrier fighter aircraft crashed while landing on the Dabolim airport runway, this morning. The pilot of the aircraft however ejected safely and escaped with minor injuries.

The pilot was shifted to INHS-Jeevanti Hospital, based in Vasco.
The Sea Harrier crashed while returning from a routine sortie at the eastern end of the Dabolim airport runway.

Speaking exclusively to ‘The Navhind Times’, the pilot of the ill-fated aircraft, Commander Janak Bevli (38 ), who is a senior staff pilot and second-in-Commander of Harrier Squadron of INAS- 300 informed that “The aircraft was stabled and hovering at the height of less than 100 feet over the runway.” He informed that at around 11.11 a.m a technical snag developed in the aircraft following that within two seconds, he ejected out of the aircraft safely.

“The aircraft then went towards the ground and hit the runway, informed the pilot. The aircraft was later found in the flames since the fuel tank was full. Fire tenders of INS Hansa and INS Gomantak immediately rushed to the site and brought the flames under control.

The wreckage of the ill-fated aircraft was removed off from the runway to make way for the landing and departure of civilian flights. As the air traffic was closed to the civil aircraft from 8 a.m till 1 p.m today, the flights that was arrived after the restricted timing did not faced any inconvenience, informed the naval public relation officer, Mr Nilkanth Kesari.

He also informed that a high level board of inquiry by the navy will be initiated to ascertain the reason behind the crash. The Revenue Minister and Vasco MLA, Mr Jose Philip D’Souza rushed to the air traffic control (ATC) at INS Hansa and later inspected the site where the aircraft crashed. Capt Yatish Saxena, Lt Commander Ankur Jain and other senior officials of the Navy were stationed at the site.

The Chief Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat had a telephonic conversation with Mr D’Souza where he inquired about the status of the crash when he was inspecting the crash site. The Chief Minister, Mr Kamat also had talks with Capt Yatish Saxena.

The Revenue Minister also met the pilot at the hospital and wished him speedy recovery.

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Hover and out
Sandeep Unnithan
December 27, 2007


It was past 11 on a warm Monday morning when Commander Janak Bevli’s Sea Harrier came to land on the tarmac on the naval air station at Goa’s picturesque Dabolim airport. It was not an ordinary fighter aircraft landing, Commander Bevli gently rotated the Sea Harrier’s Vertical/Short Take Off and Landing (V/STOL) thrust nozzles down towards the runway, bringing the aircraft to a gentle hover. Just then, the aircraft began yawing out of control.

In a flash the experienced pilot yanked the twin handles of the Martin Baker ejection seat between his thighs. His seat rocketed out of the cockpit into the sky.

The parachute blossomed minutes after the aircraft thudded on the concrete. Bevli escaped unscathed but his aircraft became the 17th Sea Harrier of a total fleet of 30 aircraft to crash since their induction in 1983. Seven pilots have been killed so far. Six of the ageing aircraft have crashed in the past five years, three in the past 12 months alone. The Indian Navy’s fleet of Sea Harrier now hovers at a perilously low figure of 13 aircraft—nine fighters and four twin-seat trainers—which raises serious doubts on its capability to defend its fleet at the sea.


the greatest threats for a carrier battle group out at the sea is from long-range maritime patrol and strike (LRMP/S) aircraft which operate far beyond the range of the ship’s sensors and surface-to-air missiles. An LRMP/S like the P3-C Orion can fire up to four Harpoon missiles, each with a range of over 120 km.

A single hit from an anti-ship missile can disable a carrier and prevent it from launching aircraft. The only weapon the navy has to speedily intercept enemy aircraft are the Sea Harrier jump jets. Now consider this alarming scenario. Over the next five years, the task of protecting the carrier battle group—the Viraat, destroyers, frigates and fleet tankers—will fall on just nine Harriers or just half a squadron of aircraft. This is less than half the required strength of fighter aircraft.

This scenario has been worsened by the fact that the refit of the aircraft carrier Vikramaditya, which India bought from Russia, has been delayed by four years and it will arrive only in 2012. Vikramaditya’s air group of 18 MiG-29K carrier-capable aircraft will start arriving in batches on time, from next year.

The MiG-29s, however, cannot operate from the Viraat’s speciallybuilt ski-jump on the flight deck and hence will be shorebased until the Vikramaditya arrives. There are three main reasons why the aircraft crash—pilot error, faulty maintenance schedule or the failure of a spare part.

The navy says it is concerned but has refused to divulge reasons behind the spate of crashes which have destroyed over 60 per cent of the Harrier fleet. Yet at least one crucial factor unifies most recent crashes: all of them occurred while the aircraft were making their landing approach suggesting a loss of control and loss of power in the final stages of landing. Clearly, an engine related issue in an aircraft that is already 25 years old. “The navy conscientiously maintains its aircraft but perhaps there are some components deep inside which are not apparent at regular inspections,” says former navy chief Admiral (retired) Arun Prakash, who flew in the first Harriers in 1983.

The spate of crashes came to the attention of Right to Information (RTI) activists Hari Kumar P. and Frederick Noronha who petitioned and successfully obtained a list of the crashes from the navy. “The crashes have been occurring with worrying frequency in Goa and seemed to have escaped any national debate,” says Noronha.

The navy says upgrades will reduce the risk of further accidents. “We have begun an upgradation of sensors, avionics and airframe of the Sea Harriers to improve the pilot’s situational awareness and lessen his load,” says naval spokesperson Commander Nirad Sinha.

The upgrade of the Harriers is now being carried out by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) in Bangalore and the first Limited Upgrade Sea Harrier (LUSH) jet is set to fly in the next six months. This upgrade will deliver to the navy a formidable interceptor. Its new Elta EL/M-2032 radar can spot the enemy from over 100 km away and its Derby Beyond Visual Range (BVR) air-to-air missiles can engage them at 60 km. Unfortunately, at the current crash rate of nearly two aircraft every year it seems doubtful that there will be any Harriers left to last through another decade the navy wants them to be in service.

Naval officials blame the UK, the original manufacturer of the aircraft for stalling urgently needed upgrades to the Harriers, first proposed in the mid-1990s. The V/STOL aircraft, which can take off from half the runway length required by normal fighter jets, were built by British Aerospace and first inducted from the UK in 1983 to operate off the British-built Viraat and the since decommissioned INS Vikrant.


Two years ago, the then defence minister Pranab Mukherjee announced that HAL would upgrade Sea Harriers. The limited upgrade of the 13 aircraft would give them Israeli Elta radars and Derby BVR missiles. The aircraft are to be delivered by 2009 and will serve the navy for another decade, With the navy deciding to extend the life of the Viraat by another decade and the Harrier already out of production in the world, analysts feel it has no option but to purchase second-hand aircraft from the UK.

The navy wanted to purchase the eight remaining Sea Harrier FA2 aircraft from the Royal Navy last year as crash replacements, but a waffling British government said it would supply them only after stripping them of radars, avionics and missile, a proposal that was rejected by the navy. During a visit to New Delhi last year, Britain’s First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Jonathon Band agreed to supply the navy the FA2s without the radars and avionics so they could be cannibalised for spare parts, but the UK subsequently backed out of this offer.Now, it turns out, there may be no more Sea Harriers left to buy.

With the Royal Navy having withdrawn its Sea Harriers from service in March last year (Royal Navy carriers operate the ground-attack variants of the jets), the Indian Navy now enjoys the uncomfortable distinction of being the world’s last operator of the aircraft which first flew in 1960. With the crashes having created an unacceptable void in its capabilities, the navy may have no option but to scout the world market for second-hand Harrier cousins like the AV-8B Harrier-II operated by the US Marine Corps and the “Matador” operated by the Spanish Navy. Here too there are problems. Unlike the British Aerospace-built Harriers which the Indian Navy operates, the AV-8Bs are built by the US McDonnel Douglas. According to naval aviators, these will bring their own set of maintenance hassles.

In the absence of any alternatives, the navy has no option but to thrust the burden of defending its growing fleet of surface warships on the ageing shoulders of its shrinking fleet of Harriers.