Human error was the cause of the crash of a MiG 21 fighter aircraft on July 15 in Uttarlai in Rajasthan in which the pilot was killed, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.
"A MiG 21 aircraft of the IAF crashed on July 15 at Air Force Station, Uttarlai. The pilot was killed in the accident. Cause of the accident is human error (aircrew)," Defence Minister A K Antony said in reply to a written query.
He said the force has lost 10 MiG 21s in the last three years in which two pilots lost their lives.
To a query on the cost of the indigenous fighter aircraft programme, Antony said "the total sanctioned cost for development of LCA, Tejas is Rs 7965.56 crore."
The minister said the project was sanctioned in 1983 with an allocation of Rs 560 crore. The full scale engineering development programme was sanctioned in 1993 with Rs 2188 crore.
"FSED Programme Phase-II was sanctioned in November 2001 at a cost of Rs 3301.78 crore to build 3 prototypes, 8 Limited Series Production aircraft and establish infrastructure for producing 8 aircraft per year," he said.
