RSAF has done much to boost flight safety
By David Boey
THOUGH military aviation is inherently dangerous, the Republic of
Singapore Air Force (RSAF) has done much to make air force flights
safe.
A study of RSAF aircraft and helicopters lost in aerial accidents
shows that the air force has achieved fewer crashes and fewer
fatalities in recent years compared to the RSAF's formative
years.
When air crashes do occur, these accidents tend to be far more
survivable now than air crashes in the 1970s.
The RSAF's improved track record did not pop up overnight but was
the result of a sustained effort to build up safety consciousness
among all ranks.
Some other air forces have failed to shrug off their bad
flight-safety record because their senior officers have not
remedied safety hazards like poor pilot training, shoddy aircraft
maintenance, improperly scripted standard operational procedures or
inadequately maintained airbase infrastructure.
The RSAF's improved safety record is commendable in view of its
higher operational tempo - which means more intense flying - and
the larger fleet of fighters, support aircraft and helicopters in
its order of battle.
From 1970 to 1979, the RSAF lost 16 pilots from 21 fighter-aircraft
crashes. One Hawker Hunter was damaged in a mid-air collision but
managed to return to its airbase safely. More than 70 per cent of
the crashes in the 1970s were fatal ones.
The 10 years between 1990 to 1999 saw nine RSAF personnel (six
helicopter pilots and three helicopter aircrewmen) die in three
helicopter crashes. No fighter pilot died during this period.
From 1990 to 1999, the RSAF lost five choppers, three fighters and
three jet trainers. One F-16A fighter, which was badly damaged in a
mid-air collision with another F-16A in July 1991, managed to limp
back to Paya Lebar Airbase and has been rebuilt.
All RSAF deaths that occurred from 1990 to 1999 involved Super Puma
transport helicopters. These carry two pilots and at least one
aircrewman in the passenger compartment.
Catastrophic helicopter crashes are less survivable than accidents
involving aircraft equipped with ejection seats because chopper
crews cannot bail out of their stricken machines.
The fact that there is a 16-year gap between the previous death of
an RSAF fighter pilot and last month's fatal crash involving
Lieutenant Brandon Loo Kwang Han, 25, underscores the part that
safety devices like ejection seats have played in saving aircrew
lives.
The last fatal crash involving an RSAF fighter pilot took place on
May 24, 1988, in the Philippines. In that incident, a 23-year-old
pilot ejected from a Hawker Hunter just outside Clark Airbase. He
was picked up by a United States Air Force rescue chopper but died
from his injuries.
Unlike ejection seats used today, which can safely extract a pilot
even if his aircraft is stationary on the ground, a Hunter pilot
needed to achieve a minimum height and airspeed for his parachute
to open safely. The pilot involved in the Clark Airbase crash was
barely at the safety threshold, so his injuries were severe.
Between that crash and the death of Lt Loo after his fighter
crashed on May 19 during a night-training flight in the Arizona
desert, 10 RSAF fixed-wing aircraft have crashed but their pilots
all survived.
Several other aircraft were involved in minor incidents, like
veering off runways, but no serious injuries to pilots were
reported.
Such news may be cold comfort to the family, friends and colleagues
of Lt Loo, whose ashes were placed in their final resting place
yesterday afternoon at Foo Hai Ch'an Monastery.
While we mourn his loss, Singaporeans can take heart that the RSAF
has built up a robust safety-management apparatus that will get to
the bottom of the tragic crash and ensure that lessons learnt are
disseminated in a proper and timely manner.
The formation of the RSAF Flight Test Centre means the air force
can work with the defence industry and defence science community to
test and install devices to make RSAF aircraft safer.
These run the gamut from ejection seats and parachutes, to devices
that can launch decoys to protect aircraft against anti-aircraft
missiles, thereby boosting the aircraft's operational safety.
Airbase infrastructure has improved significantly since the 1970s.
The decision to build Changi East Airbase and the runway on Pulau
Sudong means RSAF pilots have alternative landing strips should
emergencies arise.
These airstrips are a vital safety feature as flight paths leading
to Paya Lebar Airbase and Tengah Airbase take aircraft over densely
populated areas.
One can appreciate the enormity of the task the RSAF faces in
managing safety when one considers that the RSAF is one of the few
air forces in the world where the sun never sets on its
flight-training regime.
This is because the RSAF maintains detachments in places as far
flung as Australia, Brunei, France and the United States. So its
training management philosophy must operate not only round the
clock, but also round the globe in different climates and flying
conditions.
The RSAF cannot hope for a zero-accident rate. The only way for any
air force to achieve a zero-accident rate is for it to keep its
warplanes grounded.
That being an impractical measure, the RSAF must continue to work
to manage the consequences of air accidents by doing all it can to
make such mishaps survivable.
Warplanes can always be replaced, but pilots and aircrew are
irreplaceable.
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