>From Google: <Sea Harrier crashes so far (based on RTI query) DATE LOCATION PERSONNEL LOST * 04/05/88 Goa Sqn Ldr V Mehta * 09/07/93 Goa -- * 13/03/94 Goa * 12/08/94 Goa Cmdr KM Karnik/Lt Cmdr NS Rane * 09/12/94 Jamnagar -- * 07/02/96 At sea (off Goa) Lt Arun Punia * 30/09/97 At sea (off Goa) Lt TSS Prakash * 25/05/01 At sea * 11/01/02 At sea * 24/08/03 At sea * 16/12/04 Goa * 17/05/05 Goa * 05/12/05 Goa Lt Cdr HPS Pannu * 26/12/05 Goa * 05/04/07 At sea Lt Cdr S Tiwari * 08/09/07 At sea (off Goa)
The date of the last item seems to correspond to Operation Malabar, a multi-navy exercise (Sept 4-10, 2007) in which the Indian Navy participated. But it was held in the Bay of Bengal, not "off Goa" as given in the RTI list. Is there an error in the RTI information? Maybe the whole list will have to be checked for discrepancies. And, btw, what does "at sea" mean? How is it different from "At sea off Goa"? I suppose plain vanilla "Goa" means "At Dabolim airport"! There is a crying need to cut through the gobbledegook around this business. One final point: Five out of the 16 in the above list occurred in Dec/Jan (six out of 17 if the Dec 24,07 crash is added). Is this period particularly crash prone? Is there some way it can be mitigated?
