NEW DELHI: Another Indian frontline Sukhoi-30MKI went down due to a technical snag on Tuesday afternoon, which was the sixth crash of the “air dominance” fighter over the last 15 years. The two pilots, fortunately, managed to eject safely.The twin-seat Sukhoi had taken off from the Tezpur airbase (Assam) at 12.17 pm on a routine sortie when the technical problem forced the two pilots to abandon it. IAF has ordered a court of inquiry to establish the exact reason behind the jet crashing into a thick forest around 36 km south of Tezpur at 12.30 pm, said officers.IAF has inducted over 200 of the 272 Sukhoi fighters ordered from Russia for upwards of $12 billion, the bulk of which are being produced by Hindustan Aeronautics, till now.The entire Sukhoi fleet is now likely to be grounded for systematic precautionary checks before they can take to the skies again. Flying operations had also been suspended for a month last year after a Sukhoi had crashed near Pune on October 14.As reported by TOI earlier, there are persisting problems over the serviceability of the Sukhoi fleet, which is down to about 55% due to engine problems, shoddy maintenance, poor availability and management of spares.So, in effect, just about 100 Sukhois are ready at any given time to go to war. The Sukhoi fleet has been grounded in the past also after crashes in April 2009 and December 2011. In March, citing 69 incidents of technical glitches mainly revolving around the engines in the last three years, defence minister Manohar Parrikar had admitted to problems with the Sukhoi fleet.The Pune crash had even led India and Russia to spar over the exact reason behind the mishap. IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha had declared the crash “appeared to be due to the automatic firing of ejection seats”. It was said to be the third such instance of malfunctioning ejection seats in the Sukhoi fleet since 2008.Russia, however, blamed “pilot error” for the crash, holding the jet’s tandem K-36DM “zero-zero” ejection seats – which allow pilots to eject safely even from zero altitude at zero speed -- could not have “fired” automatically.The need to swiftly resolve the technical issues dogging the Sukhoi fleet is critical for maintaining effective deterrence against both China and Pakistan, especially since the IAF is grappling with just 34 fighter squadrons when 44 are required.India is basing Sukhoi squadrons on both the eastern and western fronts, with Pune and Bareilly getting two squadrons each, while Tezpur, Chabua, Halwara, Jodhpur and Sirsa have one each. Tezpur, Chabua, Jodhpur and Halwara will progressively get their second squadrons, while Thanjavur will get the last Sukhoi squadron by around 2018-19.