DNA: Mumbai: Saturday, March 29, 2014.
While five
people may have died on Friday due to the Indian aircraft C-130J super hercules
crashing, the total number of Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel the nation has
lost since 1994 stands at 424 till 2013. The figure was revealed after an RTI
application was filed by RTI activist, Chetan Kothari.
The reason
for them losing their lives ranges from accidents, fall, heart attacks,
natural, firing and unnatural deaths that include suicide. With respect to
suicides, around 29 suicides took place since 1994. The reasons for the same
ranged from financial, domestic, marital, stress, depression, illicit
relations, failed love affair and unknown reasons.
The most
number of deaths, however, were due to unnatural causes as per the details
provided by the air force. These were available from different command control
regions. Figures from the Delhi region, that has the central command put the
figure of unnatural death at 216.
This was
followed eastern air command central based in Shillong that reported unnatural
deaths at 49. This was followed by command centre based in Allahabad that
reported 42 deaths, south western command region in Gandhinagar with 35 deaths,
training command centre in Bangalore with deaths reported at 25, Nagpur region
at 16 and southern headquarters in Trivandrum region with 12 deaths reported.
Surprisingly,
most unnatural deaths were due road traffic accidents, followed by health
issues like heart attack, brain stroke among others. However, the information
provided did not make it clear whether these happened on duty or otherwise.
"I think the high number of deaths in road accidents should be looked at
for the reasons. Suicides and health related deaths need to be given medical
attention and counselling at regular intervals," said Chetan Kothari.
dna could not
reach out to the IAF for comment.