Government needs to own up responsibility for IAF accidents: BJP

BJP on Friday attacked UPA Government for the crash of a newly acquired US-made C-130J aircraft near Gwalior in which five crew members were killed, saying it needs to own up responsiblility for the accidents in the force.

Demanding a probe into the incident, the principal opposition party also expressed concern at the growing number of accidents in the Air force and the country's defence preparedness at the hands of the Congress-led regime.

"This is absolutely a shocking incident. Hercules is such a sturdy aircraft, it doesn't meet with such accidents. It needs not just only an inquiry but government needs to own up responsibility," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.

He said the accident speaks a lot about the infrastructure of defence forces as there have been many Navy accidents - ten in the past ten months.

"Now again this rising graph of air accidents. We lose the precious lives of our Air Force personnel and this is the status of our preparedness under the UPA regime," he said.

In a major setback to the Air Force, a newly-acquired US- made C-130J transport aircraft on Friday crashed near Gwalior after taking off from Agra air base, killing five crew members, including four officers.

Two Wing Commanders, two Squadron Leaders and another crew member were killed in the Super Hercules Special Operations plane crash.