New Delhi: Concerned over a spate of fighter jet crashes, some of them causing civilian casualties, Defence Minister George Fernandes on November 8 chaired a meeting of the top brass of the Indian Air Force (IAF), which felt that absence of design data of Russian and British aircraft came in the way of rectifying faults.

Attributing the growing number of accidents to vintage technology of 1960 and 70's, the Air Force impressed upon the government to seek design data of Russian and British aircraft like the MIG variants and Jaguars.

Maintaining that the fighter crashes were partly due to pilot errors and technical faults, IAF officials said though both the MIGs as well as Jaguars were manufactured under licence here, India did not have the design data of these aircraft, which was coming in the way of rectifying some faults detected.

Officials were speaking to reporters after the meeting of high-level Air Force and Ministry of Defence officials to chalk out measures to check the accidents.

They said that the meeting had noted that while there had been a "marked improvement" in sharpening skills to cut down on pilot errors the participants were convinced of further action needed to negotiate on transfer of design data particularly on MIG-21 variants and the Deep Penetration Jaguar aircraft.

Conceding that it would be tough to ask the manufacturers to part with design data, Officials said, "If the issue is addressed on specific note, a favourable response can be expected."

PTI