Article Posted on : - Mar 11, 2012

Indian Air Force Mirage 2000. An IAF Photo.

NEW DELHI (PTI): French aircraft manufacturing company Dassault is helping the Indian Air Force investigate the two recent crashes involving Mirage-2000 fighter jets.

A team of engineers and technicians from France arrived in Gwalior - the home base of 49 Mirage-2000 aircraft - to help the IAF in air-crash investigations, sources told PTI here.

The foreign team comprises members from SAFRAN, whose engines are fitted to the aircraft which has suffered only six casualties in its over 25 years of service with the IAF, they said.

The IAF is worried after losing two Mirage-2000 fighters in a span of 11 days and has grounded the fleet for preliminary checks.

On both the occasions it was the trainer version of the aircraft which crashed but the pilots managed to bail out successfully.

IAF has already ordered a Court of Inquiry (CoI) into the accidents.

The first crash took place on February 24 when the aircraft crashed near Bhind in Madhya Pradesh soon after takeoff.

The second accident took place on March 5, 100 km south-west of Jaipur near a village in Sawai Madhopur district of Rajasthan.

These aircraft started getting inducted into the IAF in the mid-80s and have had a very good flight safety record.

The IAF has also recently signed two deals worth over USD 3.2 billion for upgrading the capabilities of the Mirage 2000 with French companies Dassault, Thales and MBDA.

Dassault was recently awarded the contract for supplying 126 Rafale aircraft to the IAF.