New Delhi, May 6: India’s newly-acquired fleet of Hawk trainers, which had been grounded after a crash at the Bidar airbase last week, have been cleared to fly again, even as the Indian Air Force (IAF) is yet to determine the cause of the accident.

Officials confirmed that the trainers resumed flying operations on Tuesday, indicating that no major technical fault has been identified in the British origin aircraft. However, the investigation has not yet determined whether it was a human error or a technical fault that brought down a trainer on April 29, while it was taking off on a routine sortie.

Sources said the inquiry will take time to come up with a definitive answer as data from the Flight Data Recorder (FDR), which registers all communication and flight details, has not been examined. The sources added that India does not have the facility to read its contents.

The FDR will now be sent abroad, most likely to South Africa where it was manufactured, for detailed examination. Till then, IAF is not ready to comment on the reason behind the crash, saying it could be both a human error or technical fault.

The aircraft in the IAF remained on the ground for close to a week as investigators tried to figure out the reason behind last week’s downing of a fighter trainer seconds after it took off from the Bidar airbase.

The IAF had grounded the entire fleet of 10 Hawk trainers and was extremely cautious about the investigations as the newly acquired trainers had been facing serviceability issues and problems with spares.

The Air Force was also concerned about the safety of the trainers after it discovered that the brand new aircraft contained parts that appeared to be old and used. The IAF also said the aircraft had a low serviceability rate of only 40 per cent.

However, with the Hawk trainers flying again, the IAF will breathe a sigh of relief as its pilot training programme will be put back on schedule.

IAF plans to kick-off the first training course with the new trainers in July once a total of 20 aircraft arrive at Bidar.