Defence Minister George Fernandes announced in the Lok Sabha today that his ministry had ‘‘finalised the last action’’ on acquiring Advanced Jet Trainers (AJTs) for the Indian Air Force.Fernandes, who was replying questions and supplementaries during question hour, said: ‘‘The proposal is before the Cabinet Secretariat. The last action on part of the MoD has been finalised.’’The Defence Minister informed the members that the Government had ‘‘asked certain questions to the British Government pertaining to the AJT and is awaiting its answer.’’He said, while answering a question on crashes of MiG aircraft, that a total of 229 accidents involving these aircraft had occurred between 1992 and July 20 this year. Of these, 101 accidents were due to ‘‘human error’’, 95 due to ‘‘technical defects’’, 20 due to bird-hit and 13 for ‘‘other reasons’’. A total of five category-I accidents (in which aircraft is totally damaged) occurred between January 1 and July 20 this year killing a pilot and seven civilians.Omar Abdullah of the National Conference pointed out that Fernandes normally flew in a Sukhoi aircraft, which was not known to be accident-prone. He asked him in sarcasm if ‘‘he would take a regular flight in a twin-seater MiG 21 and also take some parliamentary colleagues along.’’ Fernandes responded by saying, ‘‘I shall be in a Mig 21 at the first available opportunity.’’ He said it would not be possible for him to take anyone along since the two-seater would have only a pilot and a ‘‘passive pilot’’.
