New Delhi: The evacuation of a stranded British F-35B jet from Thiruvananthapuram Tuesday rekindled memories of a similar problem the Indian Air Force faced two decades ago – one of its Mirage-2000 jets was badly damaged and stuck in Mauritius for 22 days before a risky and audacious operation succeeded in flying it back to India.
Incidentally, it also landed in Thiruvananthapuram.
The little known mission to bring back the plane will go down in India’s aviation history as one of the most celebrated demonstrations of piloting skills, courage and technical ingenuity of IAF engineers who made the aircraft airworthy in a short time after it had suffered extensive damage because of a belly landing in Mauritius.
It also put the spotlight on the grit and planning skill of the pilot, Sqn Ldr Jaspreet Singh, who braved dangerous weather and conducted three mid-air refuellings to bring back the repaired Mirage. He flew non-stop for five hours and 10 minutes October 26, 2004, over the desolate Indian Ocean, where any malfunction en route would have meant almost certain disaster.
“I remember that day as clearly as if it was yesterday,” Jaspreet, who took retirement from the IAF in 2018, told PTI.
“I was confident of undertaking this risky flight across the ocean as I had full faith in the team of exceptional technical personnel who had worked non-stop over two weeks to repair the aircraft,” he said.
“Military aviation is all about taking calculated risks when the mission demands, preparing for all possible contingencies and having your backup plans in place,” he said.
The French-built Mirage-2000 had crash-landed on October 4 at the Sir Seewoosagur-Ramgoolam International Airport in Port Louis after taking part in an air show. The belly landing had damaged the aircraft extensively, especially the underbelly auxiliary fuel tanks, the airframe, avionics and cockpit instrumentation.
On the other hand, the $110 million F-35B jet suffered a technical snag while on a maritime exercise in the Indian Ocean and had to make an emergency landing at the Thiruvananthapuram international airport on June 14. The jet was part of the HMS Prince of Wales Carrier Strike Group of the British Royal Navy.
A team of British engineers was flown in to fix the stealth fighter jet, and it finally took off for Darwin, Australia on Tuesday morning after almost 37 days.
Similarly, a group of engineers, pilots and one IL-76 transport aircraft with spares and one IL-78 refuelling tanker aircraft flew from India to Port Louis, Mauritius to fix the Mirage and help bring it back.
The rectification team made the aircraft ready for ground runs by October 13 and the Mirage did its first test flight on October 14, just 10 days after the landing accident. The team was faced with a task that had no precedence, given that Mirage-2000 is not cleared by the manufacturer Dassault to do a no-wheels landing, even in an emergency.
Recalling the mission, an IAF officer said that Jaspreet, then posted with a fighter squadron in the Central sector, was specially chosen as the pilot to fly the aircraft back to India. The ferry route is over one of the most desolate stretches of the Indian Ocean and even for a fully serviceable single engine fighter it is considered a highly challenging task, said the officer. The fact that the ferry would also involve multiple air to air refuelling added to the overall degree of difficulty, he said.
Once the aircraft had been repaired, Jaspreet carried out one taxi test and three air test sorties between October 12 and 19, during which multiple problems were revealed related to its fly-by-wire system, rudder, data display screen, throttle, brakes and fuel gauges.
The 2126 nautical mile (nearly 4000 kilometer) flight to India was initially planned for October 20, but severe weather in the second half of the route, ruled out air-to-air refueling.
“The inclement weather ensured that one Mirage 2000, one IL-78, one IL-76, and more than 50 IAF personnel were now stranded with the possibility that the wait could go on for weeks,” said Jaspreet.
However, on the morning of October 25, satellite pictures revealed that the first 1000 nautical miles (NM) of the flight route from Mauritius to TVM was clear, allowing three air to air refuelling.
With the window of opportunity closing, Air Headquarters signed off for the ferry flight to take off on October 26, 2004.
Jaspreet and the fighter took off at 7.55 am from a wet runway with very little fuel so as not to over stress the airframe. He entered the clouds almost immediately. But he had to ensure the first refuelling 11 minutes after take-off. There was zero margin for error. None was made. The Mirage refuelled in time and climbed safely to 25,000 feet. A second refuelling was also done successfully.
Since refuelling was not possible in the final leg because of bad weather, the team came up with a plan: Jaspreet would top up fuel from the IL-78 while still 1100 NM short of Thiruvananthapuram and climb to a level above 40,000 feet to fly unaided the rest of the way. Flying at a higher altitude and optimum speed, the Mirage would consume less fuel.
But it also meant flying the last 2 hours at 43,000 feet at 0.92 mach speed (or 0.92 per cent of the speed of sound). This was well beyond what the aircraft had been flight tested for. If the calculations were wrong or if a malfunction resulted in higher fuel consumption, the Mirage would have been in trouble.
Explaining the feat, an expert said the single engine, single pilot Mirage jet undertook the transoceanic flight with no alternative airfields to land (in case of an emergency), travelling alone in a radar-less airspace with no direct radio contact with ground control and with bad weather which would have prevented any search and rescue operation over the ocean in case of an ejection.
Along the way things were not smooth for Jaspreet. One of its radio sets failed, the fuel gauges gave incorrect indications and the oxygen almost finished in the cockpit. Yet the Mirage landed safely at Thiruvananthapuram at 2.50 pm.
The next day, Jaspreet flew the Mirage to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited airfield in Bengaluru where it was fully repaired and returned to operational service almost four months later.
Jaspreet was conferred the ‘Vayu Sena’ (Gallantry) medal by the President of India for his sincerity, exceptional courage and professionalism beyond the call of duty.
“The ferry of Mirage-2000 across a stretch of 2126 nautical miles was one of the most challenging, daring and risky peacetime operations ever undertaken by a fighter aircraft in the history of the IAF,” Singh’s citation reads.
Documenting the mission, an internal note of the IAF said: “Given the situation, not too many air forces in the world would have been bold enough to attempt this ferry. The IAF needs to be proud of this mission and the professionalism and courage shown by its personnel.”
PTI
