The Flag Officer Commanding Goa Naval Area, Rear Admiral Puneet K Bahl, has disclosed that there are still seven more MiG-29K aircraft to be inducted in Indian Navy, as per the contract signed between India and Russia, of the total 45 MiG-29K aircraft.

Speaking exclusively to this daily on Thursday, when asked whether the ill-fated MiG-29K aircraft which crashed while taking off from Dabolim airport runway on Wednesday afternoon is in a position to remain in the fleet or not, Rear Admiral Bahl said that the Navy had a total of 38 MiG-29K aircraft in its fleet, but now the number has reduced to 37 with the crash of one aircraft.

“As per the contract with Russia, they are supposed to deliver 7 more MiG-29K aircraft, of the total 45,” said Bahl, adding, the remaining 7 aircraft will be inducted as and when the Russians supply the aircraft and that there is no timeline for delivery of the same.

“We will assess the ill-fated aircraft to know the possibilities of its recovery and flying,” Bahl stated.

He however claimed that there was no fault in the aircraft since it was supplied by Russia after performing all flying tests, some eight years ago.

“In November 2013, the aircraft carrier was inducted in Indian Navy. The MiG-29K started flying from the aircraft carrier. Earlier, the aircraft would fly from the shore with availability of fly deck shore based test facility (SBTF) having key chains, replicating the conditions applied for flying the MiG-29K aircraft.”

Rear Admiral said that Navy will analyse the facts and also conduct an enquiry into the crash and extent of damage. “We have to conduct a survey of the ill-fated aircraft and also need to ascertain the status of it,” he said. He said the ill-fated aircraft’s under carriage and wings have been damaged.

“We suspended all the flights for an hour at Dabolim airport looking at the emergency after the crash of MiG-29K,” said Bahl. He further said that some four domestic flights were diverted, but later landed at Dabolim airport when the situation normalised.

He said investigation into the incident would take little more time since the investigating agencies have to collect information from data recorder and video recordings of the crash. “The flying operations and sorties of the MiG-29K will continue from the naval base INS Hansa,” he informed.