Air Force denies counterfeit Chinese parts led to plane crash
1 April 2014 11:52 PM GMT
The Air Force stressed that such parts were alleged to be present only in the display systems of the aircraft and it could not have caused the mishap in which five personnel were killed on Friday.
After the reports in 2012 suggested that Chinese counterfeit parts were fitted on some particular batches of C-130J aircraft, equipment on board our aircraft was sent to Lockheed Martin in batches for verification about the presence of Chinese counterfeit parts on our aircraft, an IAF spokesperson said.
‘Almost all the batches of our equipment have come back and the firm has confirmed that such equipment was not present on our systems but the last batch of our equipment has not yet arrived and we are waiting for it,’ he said.
The IAF was responding to reports about the issue of presence of counterfeit Chinese equipment and suggestions that it could have been the possible cause behind the crash.
A committee of the US Senate in its probe in 2012 had suggested that counterfeit parts such as memory chips supplied by a Chinese company were used in C-130J planes produced between a specific period.
The IAF has already sent the black box of the C-130J transport aircraft that crashed near Gwalior to the US to seek the assistance of its manufacturer Lockheed Martin in decoding the data.
The Air Force has sent black box of the C-130J to the US to seek the assistance of its manufacturer Lockheed Martin in decoding the data, IAF officials said on Sunday. The connectors of the Flight Data Recorder or the black box are damaged along with the card inside the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR). ‘To avoid any loss of data while trying to decode the equipment, we have decided to send the black box to the US,’ an IAF spokesperson said here. The black box was sent by an early morning flight Sunday to Lockheed Martin, he said.
The delay in decoding the black box data would also mean a delay in determining the cause of the crash, he said. The IAF had stated on Friday that it would come out with a preliminary report on the reasons behind the mishap in 24 hours.
After the reports in 2012 suggested that Chinese counterfeit parts were fitted on some particular batches of C-130J aircraft, equipment on board our aircraft was sent to Lockheed Martin in batches for verification about the presence of Chinese counterfeit parts on our aircraft, an IAF spokesperson said.
‘Almost all the batches of our equipment have come back and the firm has confirmed that such equipment was not present on our systems but the last batch of our equipment has not yet arrived and we are waiting for it,’ he said.
The IAF was responding to reports about the issue of presence of counterfeit Chinese equipment and suggestions that it could have been the possible cause behind the crash.
A committee of the US Senate in its probe in 2012 had suggested that counterfeit parts such as memory chips supplied by a Chinese company were used in C-130J planes produced between a specific period.
The IAF has already sent the black box of the C-130J transport aircraft that crashed near Gwalior to the US to seek the assistance of its manufacturer Lockheed Martin in decoding the data.
The Air Force has sent black box of the C-130J to the US to seek the assistance of its manufacturer Lockheed Martin in decoding the data, IAF officials said on Sunday. The connectors of the Flight Data Recorder or the black box are damaged along with the card inside the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR). ‘To avoid any loss of data while trying to decode the equipment, we have decided to send the black box to the US,’ an IAF spokesperson said here. The black box was sent by an early morning flight Sunday to Lockheed Martin, he said.
The delay in decoding the black box data would also mean a delay in determining the cause of the crash, he said. The IAF had stated on Friday that it would come out with a preliminary report on the reasons behind the mishap in 24 hours.
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