FOCUS: the air force incident in Bacau is the third one in which an IAR Falcon subsonic plane is involved
Indira CrasneaIAR-99 Falcon is a subsonic plane of advanced reactive training and terrestrial attack, entirely projected in Romania and built in Craiova Planes S.A.
Its characteristics system of avionic and weaponry allows the pilot’s training for both supersonic MIG-21 Lancer and F-16 flights.
The modern version is the IAR 99 Falcon TD, a 2015 generation plane, which could also “live” after 2015, as a school plane, advanced training and other missions.
In March this year, Viorica Dancila was announcing, at the extraordinary congress of PSD that “upgrading the IAR-99 Falcon planes is one of the 100 measures that will be applied by the Executive this year”. “The Falcon planes upgrading- This is Mihai Fifor! Where are you Mihai? You have 2% of GDP- so you really have resources to re-launch our defence industry”, was saying Dancila in the speech she had at the social-democrat congress.
Last month, the National Defence Minister, Mihai Fifor, sent the Permanent Cameras of the Senate and the Deputy Camera a letter in which he was demanding the Parliament to approve the upgrading procedures of the IAR-99 planes.
“The endowment of the Air Force with F-16 multirole planes demands an advanced training platform by remaking avionic and control systems of the IAR-99 aircraft flights. Moreover, the new configuration of the platform will also consider the increasing of the installation and board systems reliability, the extension of aircrafts existence, creating habits, abilities and necessary aptitudes for the successful accomplishment of the missions and the safe piloting of the multirole planes, as well as reducing the associated risks of the obsolescent components and technical equipment”, was saying the minister Mihai Fifor in the letter regarding the upgrading procedures of the IAR-99 aircrafts.
He was also saying that through CSAT Decision in 4th of April, 2018, it was approved the “Endowment program of upgrading the IAR-99 Air Crafts” (21 aircrafts) by endowing MAPN in the IAR-99 super falcon configuration, the estimated costs necessary to make this process work being around 124 million euros, without VAT.
Also the minister Mihai Fifor was suggesting at the end of the last week the association of the IAR Falcon subtonics to air force police missions.
“After the tragedy that happened last week at the air force event, according to the procedures during the investigations the MIG devices remain on the ground. In this moment, the air force police is made by our British partners at Mihail Kogalniceanu base, along with the 4 Typhoon devices. If it is necessary we can associate with Falcon devices that the Romanian Air Force have”, said the Defence Minister, Mihai Fifor.
In august 2012, an IAR-99 Falcon with double command that he was piloting was crushing during a training flight, at short time after taking off, in Craiova’s airport area. At the stick was aerial fleet general (p.m) Aurelian Cojocaru, the chief of the Section Pilots attempts, navigation and meteorology from the Investigations and Attempts in Flights Centre in Craiova, a pilot with and experience of over 25 years and that had 900 active flight hours on IAR-99 Falcon aircraft.
At that moment, the plane burned completely.
In June 2014, an IAR-99 plane with double command, piloted by Colonel Leonard Baraboi, together with a student from the Application School for the Air Forces at the Aerial Base in Boboc, Buzau, landed forced shortly after taking off, the crew being safe an sound.
An IAR 99 falcon aircraft, with double command from the 95 Base Air Force “Captain Hero aviator Alexandru Stefanescu” in Bacau crashed today, 16th of July, around 13.30 pm, in the commune Nicola Balcescu, Bacau, the two pilots managing to bet catapulted.
