First Tejas Crash: A Safety Run Of Over Two Decades Comes To An End

India's indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas, which until now boasted a perfect flying record, experienced its first crash in Jaisalmer on 12 March, bringing an end to its impeccable safety streak that spanned over two decades, specifically 23 years.

The unfortunate incident occurred in Jawahar Nagar, Jaisalmer, just around 100 km away from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi was attending the Bharat Shakti tri-services firepower exercise, raising speculations that the jet might have been participating in the Bharat Shakti exercise.

Despite this setback, its notable that Tejas, since its first flight in 2001, had never seen a crash — until today — something which its developers would be proud of.

This unprecedented safety record is a testament to the meticulous and safety-centric approach adopted by the developers, particularly significant as this was India’s first attempt at creating a fourth-generation fighter that had multiple new technologies from the get-go.

A key innovation that Tejas used is the all-digital fly-by-wire (FBW) flight control system (FCS).

Since Tejas is intentionally designed to be unstable (to make the aircraft more agile), the importance of the computer-controlled FBW FCS cannot be overstated. The FCS interprets pilot inputs and adjusts the aircraft's control surfaces hundreds of times per second, maintaining its flight stability.

If the FCS were to glitch, the jet would simply crash.

That is why Tejas has a quadruple-redundant digital FBW so that even if one channel malfunctions, control can be maintained using the remaining three channels. This unblemished safety record is a testament to the excellent reliability of the digital FBW system, and India got it right on its first attempt.

In comparison, when the Swedes tried this with their all-new Gripen jet, the FCS failed, and the prototype crashed.

Eurofighter Typhoon, a UK, Germany, Italy, and Spain's jointly developed aircraft's prototype also crashed while testing, just eight years after its first flight due to the flameout of both engines.

The United States, whose jets are believed to be extremely reliable, saw its advanced fifth generation fighter, the F-35, crash in 2018, 17 years after its first flight in 2001.

Since then, the F-35 too has seen 10 more crashes (a total of 11) in just five years.

Although even one crash of these advanced and costly jets is disappointing, the truth is that these jets are machines that are bound to suffer some glitches in the long run.

Apart from today's crash, Tejas experienced another incident in 2020, when Group Captain Varun Singh safely landed the aircraft after an initial failure of its life support environment control system, followed by a malfunction in its Flight Control System (FCS).

He was given a Shaurya Chakra for his heroic actions.

It goes without saying that aviation is a risky business. This incident does not diminish the achievements of the Tejas program but highlights the challenges of pushing the boundaries of aviation technology.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has launched a court of inquiry (CoI) to determine the cause of the incident. The correct reason for the crash must be identified and rectified at the earliest.