Less than ten days ago Indian female President Pratibha Patil flew in a Sukhoi fighter plane. A day back, one of the Sukhoi’s crashed, but, fortunately, the pilot bailed safely. Now the entire fleet of Sukhoi 30s has been grounded as a standard operating procedure by the Indian Air Force HQ.

The Sukhoi fighters are India’s top of the range combat planes and they have been generally accident free, unlike the Mig fighter jets.The Sukhoi has crashed once before – in April 2009.

Sukhoi Fighet aircrafts were inducted in 1996 by the Indian Air Force. Now after the second case of crash in six months, thorough checks will be conducted on the complete fleet before operations are resumed.

The Sukhoi crash in April was a fault in the fly-by-wire mechanism and the recent crash is blamed on the engine catching fire. This seems to have created a few anxieties among the IAF (Indian Air Force) bosses, who have ordered complete grounding of the 100-strong fleet of Sukhoi’s.

This crash could not have come at a more critical time as India is poised to induct over 150 Sukhois over the next five years. It has made an inspection of the faults in the existing fleet mandatory.