Rise in crashes raise concerns about health of ageing PAF fleet

Many accidents have occurred because of technical problems.

Over a dozen Pakistan Air Force (PAF) planes have crashed in roughly the past 18 months, raising concerns about the health of an ageing fleet that officials are struggling to upgrade because of a lack of funds, The Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

A significant number of the air force’s combat aircraft are nearly half a century old and have been called on in recent years to help the army fight a domestic Taliban insurgency that has killed thousands of people. This has added to the strain on a force that has historically focused on countering the threat from India.

The agency noted that Pakistan had turned to the US and China for help in modernising its air force, but economic woes had strained the government’s budget.

It cited Shahzad Chaudhry, a former senior PAF officer, as saying the number of planes that have crashed “would be worrying for any air force.”

“If I were air force chief, I certainly wouldn’t want to see over a dozen airplanes being lost,” said Chaudhry. “Obviously we need to bring those numbers down.”

At least 13 planes have crashed since May 2011, many because of technical problems, according to a record maintained by The Associated Press.

The most recent accident occurred on Nov 22, when a Dassault Mirage fighter jet crashed on a routine night training mission in Punjab, killing the pilot. The air force said at the time that it was investigating the cause of the crash, but eyewitnesses said the plane caught fire before it fell out of the sky.

Nearly half the planes that have crashed were decades-old Mirage fighters. They make up at least a quarter of the force’s fleet of about 400 combat aircraft, according to the website GlobalSecurity.org.

“We bought them at almost throw-away prices, brought them over, overhauled them and continue to operate them,” said former PAF chief Tanvir Mahmood. “This was our compulsion because of the financial constraints that we had.”

The former senior air force officer, said the Mirage was a “very sturdy platform” that shouldn’t fail easily.

The crashes raise questions not only about the age of the aircraft, but also flight maintenance practices, said Sajjad Haider, a celebrated former air force pilot who has written a book about the service.

The most advanced fighter jet operated by PAF is the F-16 Fighting Falcon, over 60 of which were purchased in various batches from the US over the past three decades.

Other planes that have gone down include the Chengdu F-7 fighter jet bought from China, the JF-17 Thunder fighter jet jointly developed with China and Pakistan’s Mushshak trainer, a propeller plane.

PAF chief Tahir Rafique Butt, told the Senate Standing Committee on Defence at the end of November that the force was struggling to modernise its equipment and technology because of a shortage of funds, said the head of the committee, Mushahid Hussain.

Mushahid said the air force was doing the best with what it has, but the recent spate of crashes “was linked to use of technology that is becoming obsolete.” “That reinforces the argument the air force was making to us about a lack of resources,” said Mushahid.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 12^th, 2012.