This is the story of how a Jaguar aircraft of the Indian Air Force was saved and an important defect discovered.
As a follow-up of this story here is what I heard from a retired Indian Air Force officer who was peripherally involved:
“Let me clarify that the BAe initially told the IAF that our modification was not the right one and they would not be responsible for any mishaps.
But we stuck to our stand as our test pilots and technical staff had gone through the entire modification and confirmed its veracity.
A few days later, there was a similar incident in the RAF and they were able to recover the aircraft by following our drill – putting the battery off and then selecting the undercarriage down. A few months later, there was an air show, I think in Dubai.
BAe representative there boasted how quick they were to come up with modifications after the incident. Fortunately, one of the representatives from HAL was there within hearing distance.
He immediately pointed out that it was an Indian modification (we had come up with the solution within two weeks while the British guys were clueless for more than three months) and the British had just copied it and given their own name!”
