Twenty-four of the accidents were caused by human error, 20 were due to technical defects and bird-hits were responsible for three, he said.

"A continuous and multi-faceted effort is always afoot in (the) Indian Air Force to enhance and upgrade flight safety," Fernandes said in a written reply to a question in the upper house of parliament.

A majority of the accidents involved the MiG-21 fighter aircraft.

In the most recent accident, a pilot and co-pilot of a MiG-21 died after their plane crashed at a military airport in Indian Kashmir on July 15.

The Indian Air Force, the world's fourth largest, has been plagued by accidents that have left about 100 pilots dead since the early 1990s.

A meeting chaired by Fernandes in November decided to phase out the ageing Russian-made MiG-21s.

WAR.WIRE