Employees of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited found reason to smile on Tuesday after word spread that the Indian Air Force had used Mirage 2000 multi-role fighter aircraft for the pre-dawn air strikes across the Line of Control.
The company, about which uncharitable remarks were made by those associated with the government after the Rafale controversy broke, had been dragged over coals when a Mirage 2000 it upgraded had crashed and killed both IAF pilots on February 1.
“That was a real tragedy as we lost two test pilots. But everyone started blaming HAL although only the court of inquiry can tell what really went wrong,” said a HAL official. The upgraded aircraft was on its first test flight from the elite Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment here when it crashed and turned into a fireball inside the HAL campus seconds after take-off.
