The nation is well aware of the price that has been paid in terms of lives and aircraft lost in the last two decades owing essentially to enigmatic procrastination in the induction of the Hawk.

On April 29, Indian Air Force (IAF) plans to commence training on the newly acquired fleet of Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT) in February this year suffered a jolt when one of the 10 brand new aircraft crashed at Air Force Station Bidar. As per reports, the aircraft met with an accident during take-off for a training mission and was completely destroyed in post-crash fire. It was indeed providential that there was no loss of life. As is the practice, a Court of Inquiry (C of I) has been ordered to establish the precise cause of the accident and recommend measures to prevent recurrence.

As a precautionary step, the remaining nine aircraft were grounded pending verdict of the C of I. But subsequently the fleet was cleared to resume flying training within a week of the accident even while investigators sifted through the charred wreckage, poured over data from recording devices, scrutinized orders, instructions, standard operating procedures, maintenance procedures, air traffic control logs as also intimately questioned the host of witnesses.

It will take some time before the final word is said and hence it would be inappropriate to be judgmental. At this stage we may only conjecture. But the fact that the fleet has been cleared to fly again without waiting for the findings of the C of I, suggests that prima facie there are good reasons to believe that it is more likely to be a case of error of skill on the part of the pilots. However, in the absence of complete and precise information on the episode, one should not be surprised if doubts about the AJT programme plague the public mind.