A Helicopter while landing crashed on an inaccessible helipad on 4th August, 1968 and suffered very sever damages. The aircraft was initially surveyed and was found to be beyond recovery due top the lack of communication facilities in the area. In spite of this, Flight Lieutenant Varghese took up this challenging task with practically no servicing experience or training on the type. He finally led a party of men to the crash site on 23rd April, 1969 and had the aircraft flown out on 12th May, 1969 after carrying out patch-repairs.

For carrying out this task, Flight Lieutenant Varghese had to improvise on the spot repair schemes. He showed the same ingenuity and resource fullness for air lifting a serviceable engine to the site, in a Helicopter. Besides tackling these complex technical problems, he also sustained the morale of his men in the face of extremely adverse conditions like lack of communication, medical attention and at time proper food. He thus displayed outstanding qualities of professional skill, leadership and devotion to duty. His devoted efforts also resulted in the saving of approximately Rupees twenty lakhs.