Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of India's Greatest Military Victory

Mad Mally gets mad at a MiG!
In an unequal fight, a Su-7 Pilot shot down a Pakistani MiG-19

Dec 12, Western Sector: Close on the heels of the news of the Starfighter being shot down over Kutch, Another  IAF pilot today accomplished a similar feat. But this was undertaken in a much inferior aircraft against an adversary much more capable and superior.

Flt Lt S S Malhotra, of Nol.32 Squadron, known popularly as Mad Mally was tasked with flying a Photo Recce sortie against the Pakistani Air Field of Risalawala. His Squadron flies the Sukhoi-7 ground attack aircraft.

As Flt Lt Malhotra proceeded with his mission over Risalawala, he was intercepted by two Pakistani MiG-19 aircraft. The Mig-19 is a versatile twin engined jet aircraft which is nimble and agile. The PAF flies the chinese copy of the aircraft called the F-6 and it has been recently been equipped with the deadly  Sidewinder Missiles.

Facing such odds in his Ground Attack Sukhoi is daunting to say the least. The

Flt Lt S S Malhotra of No.32 Squadron

Sukhoi is not an agile dogfighter and is too huge to be thrown around in the sky. Flt Lt Malhotra saw that one of the MiGs was making a beeline for him and immediately broke his aircraft in the direction. As he hauled the aircraft in a 360 degree turn, he found himself coming behind his adversary.

He maneuvered his aircraft and gave him a burst from his twin 30mm cannon. It was here that the episode turns comic. The Flight Lt did not bother to observe the results of his strike and proceeded to fly back to his airbase. Back at the airbase, he did not  even make  a  claim.   Simply

A PAF F-6, the chinese copy of the MiG-19

stating that he aborted the primary mission as he was intercepted by the Pakistani Interceptors. It was in the evening when a Pakistani Spokesman admitted the loss of one of thier MiG-19s over Risalawala to an Indian Sukhoi, and the death of Flt Lt Ejazuddin in the fight did the Squadron piece together the mission. On enquiry, Flt Lt Malhotra mentioned that his aircombat encounter with the Pakistani fighter.

This is the first time a MiG-19 has been encountered in aircombat and has been shot down. The MiG-19 is beleived to have shot down some IAF aircraft in earlier raids. But this is the first time the IAF shot them down

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