INDIAN NAVY TUPOLEV TU-142MK-E

Decommissioned Tu-142MK-E have been placed at various locations in India

IN-312: Visakhapatnam
IN-318: Kakinada
IN-317: New Town, Kolkata
IN-313: Indian Naval Academy (INA), Ezhimala
IN-311: INS Rajali, Arakkonam later transported to Nausena Shaurya Vatika, Lucknow
(the IN-311 airframe was dismantled, transported by road to Lucknow and reassembled on site)
IN-315 at Naval museum Karwar
IN-314, IN-316: Retained at INS Rajali (Arakkonam) as part of the naval air station's static heritage collection.

All eight airframes were successfully decommissioned without a single hull loss over their 29 years of active service with the Indian Navy. Over its 29 years of active service, the Tu-142 fleet accumulated over 30,000 accident-free flight hours, serving as India's primary "Eye in the Sky".

India negotiated the procurement of eight tailored Tu-142MK-E airframes (an export variant equipped with the Korshun-K search-and-targeting radar and Ladoga MAD boom).

The eight Tu-142MK-E aircraft were purchased brand-new directly from the Soviet factory Taganrog Aviation Plant (TAVIA). India signed the procurement agreement in the mid-1980s for an export-tailored standard designated Tu-142MK-E. Because they were fresh factory builds for an export client, the airframes featured English cockpit instrumentation and labeling, specialized avionics modifications, and custom paint schemes straight off the assembly line.

Indian Navy aircrew and technical staff were sent to Riga in May 1987 for operational training. The first batch of three aircraft arrived at INS Hansa (Goa) on March 30, 1988. By October 1988, all eight aircraft (IN-311 to IN-318) were delivered.

The aircraft were commissioned into the INAS 312 squadron (nicknamed the Albatrosses). In May 1992, the squadron moved its permanent home base from Goa to INS Rajali in Arakkonam, Tamil Nadu, positioning it strategically to monitor the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and Malacca Strait.

The Tu-142MK-E fleet was formally retired from Indian Naval service on March 29, 2017, at INS Rajali, and replaced by Boeing P-8I Poseidon aircraft. The Indian Navy retired the fleet without losing a single airframe to an operational accident.

That famous near miss incident of 26 January 2000

According to the flypast schedule, the IAF's "Big Boy" formation was supposed to clear the saluting base a full one minute ahead of the Navy's Tu-142M formation.
Due to a mix-up in timing and air traffic control coordination, the much faster Tu-142M formation overtook the Il-76-led formation right above the main parade venue.
Spotting the heavy Il-76 close ahead, the naval pilots leading the Tu-142M formation reacted instantly, pulling up hard and clearing the airspace above the IAF formation to avoid a catastrophic mid-air collision directly over the spectators. The altitude separation between the two heavy formations collapsed to approximately 600 feet, bringing the massive aircraft dangerously close to each other directly over the VVIP enclosure, which housed top dignitaries including President K.R. Narayanan and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
The vertical separation was about 600 ft, which is otherwise ok because the min safe vertical separation is mandated at 500 ft in VFR (as it is flypasts are always VFR) but it was an incident because it happened right over Rajpath and VIPs in attendance.

The separation failure occurred directly over Rajpath's VVIP section and crowded viewing stands at low altitude (typically 300–1,000 ft AGL for public flypasts). In public air shows, horizontal and vertical margins are strictly enforced to ensure that even a slight stall or sudden evasive maneuver does not send a heavy airframe into the crowd below. The 600 ft separation was technically "non-colliding," but in tactical formation flying over a dense public zone, it breached the strict timing and spatial buffers agreed upon by joint-service air controllers.