Squadron Leader Sadanand Keshav Dixit (12407) Flying (Pilot) while on a unit detachment at Leh, was tasked for a search mission on 21st July, 1982.

A party of ten tourists of different nationalities, had started down ZANSKAR river on two rafts from PADAM village. The same day two empty rafts had been spotted at NIMMU, where the ZANSKAR flows into INDUS, and so ten rafters were feared to be in some danger. The ZANSKAR river is, on the average, only about seven feet in width and its valley is extremely narrow with walls of stone rising thousands of feet high from both banks of the river.

Squadron Leader Dixit took off from Leh at about 1500 hours for this challenging mission of mercy with full knowledge of the hazards. By the time he reached the Indus/Zanskar confluence, the sun had already dipped beyond the western ridges, causing dark and deceptive shadows. This coupled with strong winds and turbulence, made his task of search, nearly impossible. The narrowness of the valley and fading light compelled him to descend to about 100' over the rapids of the Zanskar, which, in itself, is a hair raising task, even under the best of conditions. This endeavour of flying the machine, battling the against the heavy odds and searching for survivors was a daring display of professional efficiency and bravery of the highest order. Undaunted by these, Squadron Leader Dixit continued the search. After 30 minutes of continuous scanning of the wing swept dark valley, he noticed a movement on the right bank of the river. The stranded persons were perched on a steep and rocky slope. When all attempts to land near the party failed, a precarious landing on a rocky spot, on the opposite bank was executed. Contact was established with stranded persons and it was established that all of them were unharmed, though without food and clothes. Two survival packs were given to them to enable them to tide over the night and helicopter returned to Leh. On the 22nd July, 1984, Squadron Leader Dixit was airborne at first light to commence evacuation. An engineer party was taken along to attempt bridging the river to bring the persons to the left bank. However, it was soon realized that the make shift bridge would not work out and it was decided to pick up the persons in a low hover over the slopy right bank. Executing a steady hover on a steep slope at high altitude and in a strong winds is tremendously demanding task which made the operations more difficult by people climbing in the rear. A total of three trips were made in a similar fashion till all ten tourists were safely landed at Leh.

Squadron Leader Sadanand Keshav Dixit thus displayed bravery, indomitable courage and exceptional professionalism.

Flight Lieutenant Seethraman Lakshimarayan Thantry was a member of the team entrusted with the task of installation, testing and commissioning of Diesel Generating Sets in the Power House.

On the 14th October, 1982 after the rectification of excessive vibrations in one engine, it was started for further checks. As soon as the engine was started it went into runway condition, the speed shooting up much beyond the normal operating speed of 1000 RPM. Efforts to shut off the engine from the electrical control panel in the Control Cabin, and also by manually operating the stop solenoid fitted on the engine failed. In the mean time the material on the exhaust pipe of the engine caught fire. The whole power house was filled with toxic fumes and heavy smoke which reduced the visibility inside practically at zero. Heavy sparks were also noticed from the alternator. Realizing the gravity of situation Flight Lieutenant Seethraman Lakshimarayan Thantry, decided that the fuel supply to the engine should be closed to starve the engine fuel. In spite of grave risk to his person he went crawling behind the engine and closed the fuel valve to the engine. The fire extinguishers were thereafter operated to put out the fire.

Flight Lieutenant Seethraman Lakshimarayan Thantry thus displayed exemplary courage in saving the running engine from total ruin, and also possible heavy damage to rest of installed equipment in the Power House.

On the 25th November, 1982, Flight Lieutenant Sumer Chand Gaur (14118) AE (M)/ Air was detailed as the Flight Engineer on board a Packet aircraft to carry out “Circuits and Landing” exercise at night. In the sortie, on the sixth circuit, the positive lock down green indication for the nose wheel gear did not come on when the undercarriage lever was selected down. The officer immediately took appropriate steps to handle the emergency. He, on visual check of the nose wheel, found that the nose gear was not fully extended and ground locking pin holes were not aligned. All laid down emergency procedures carried out to lower the under-carriage to extend failed. With the sound knowledge and background of the system, the officer envisaged that the only alternative was to disconnect the nose actuator and allow the nose under carriage to extend fully, whereby it would be possible to insert nose locking pin thus ensuring a safe landing. This, however, required walking into open nose wheel bay and undoing the actuator jack bolts, aligning ground locking pin holes and inserting the ground locking pin. He undertook this task at grave personal risk and successfully completed it. The aircraft later carried out a safe landing.

Flight Lieutenant Sumer Chand Gaur thus displayed courage and high order of professional competence.

Wing Commander Dilip Kumar Ranchhod Das Ashar (7686) Flying (Pilot) was commanding an operational bomber squadron of the IAF. On 24th January, 1983, while on a night training flight, the Canberra trainer that he was flying, had a bird hit. This resulted in flaming out of starboard engine. The differential thrust led to almost 90° bank only a few feet above the ground. Despite the rapidity at which the grave emergency developed, Wing Commander remained calm. He reacted with incredible speed and took the necessary recovery action. Even in the face of almost certain death, Wing Commander Ashar remained calm, and did not lose sight of his duties as a commander and a soldier. In the few seconds available to him he warned his crew, switched off the left engine and applied recovery controls. Failure to do so would have caused the aircraft to roll on its back prior to the crash. In the process he himself was totally injured but he saved the lives of two of his crew members.

Wing Commander Dilip Kumar Ranchhod Das Ashar thus displayed courage, a high order of professional competence and devotion to duty.

Squadron Leader Rajendra Singh Tandon (9432) Flying (Pilot), was a member of first Air Force team that participated in the second Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica in 1982-83.

He volunteered to take on the responsibility of off-loading the entire equipment for the expedition from the ship. He organized the off-loading and worked untiringly for more than 24 hours at a stretch to ensure that over 40 tons of material was offloaded in the shortest possible time. At the base camp, he organized and executed the various administrative tasks with a great sense of purpose, responsibility and efficiency.

He carried out various reconnaissance trips on foot and open snow-scooter in sub zero temperature to select a site for preparation of a skiway. For this purpose, he traversed through the hazardous terrain full of dangerous hidden cracks and crevasses with total disregard to his personal safety. His courage, dedication and zeal contributed a great deal in achieving the task in a short span of ten days in a totally alien environment and severe climatic conditions.

On the night of 18th February, 1983, a severe snow storm struck the base camp and the blizzard lasted for two days trapping four members of the expedition in their damaged hut. The base camp was ravaged and a large number of scientific and other equipment were either blown away or damaged. On the 21st February, 1983, at 0400 hours, a rescue mission was launched from the ship. Squadron Leader Rajendra Singh Tandon volunteered for the rescue mission. The ship's bow could be brought to the shelf of the ice for a very short period of time. With total disregard for his personal safety and displaying bravery of high order, Squadron Leader Tandon jumped from the ship on to the shelf and proceeded on foot to the base camp where he rescued the trapped members and salvaged most of the scientific equipment and the precious data they had gathered.

Squadron Leader Rajendra Singh Tandon thus displayed courage and selfless devotion to duty.

Squadron Leader Krishan Pratap Narain Singh (11023) Flying (Pilot) was detailed to carry out a rescue mission on 5th June, 1983, of an NCC Expedition stranded due to severe blizzard near Devachen Peak in Himachal Pradesh. Squadron Leader Krishan Pratap Singh located Cadet Shankar Thakuri and Naik Mohammad Shaffi in a steep snow covered terrain at an altitude of 17,500 feet. Exercising extreme caution and displaying remarkable flying skill and daring he managed to land the helicopter on a small flat ground in 45 knots cross wind conditions and thus rescued the injured Cadet Shankar Thakuri. Squadron Leader KPN Singh's decision to land the helicopter at 17,500 ft. on unprepared ground in extremely adverse weather conditions thus resulted in saving precious life and bringing up the morale of other expedition members.

Squadron Leader Krishan Pratap Narain Singh displayed exceptional professionalism, dedication and courage of a high order, beyond the call of duty.

Squadron Leader Gommenvalli Narayanappa Ramachandra (10920) Flying (Pilot) captained one of the Mi-8 helicopters, which were rushed to Andhra Pradesh for flood relief operations. On the 13th August, 1983, in Ramagundam village, 17 villagers were trapped in a hut in the floods. The trapped victims were mostly women and children.

Minutes after receiving the message from the District Magistrate, Karimnagar, Squadron Leader Ramachandra with the team got airborne and reached the spot. On sighting the isolated hut in flood waters he immediately started winching operations. Seeing the fury of the floods and the rate at which water was rising he quickly assessed that by winching one person at a time he may not be in a position to save all the lives. He decided to abandon the winching operations and resort to landing the helicopter so all the victims would be rescued.

Since the only place for landing was occupied by the victims themselves he hovered the helicopter in such a way that the door of the helicopter came close to the hut. He then ordered the Flight Gunner to jump out on the roof of the hut along with the winch cable. The gunner hooked the winch cable to one of the strong members of the hut and helped women and children reach the helicopter by holding the winching cable. Thus all 17 victims were rescued.

Squadron Leader Gommenvalli Narayanappa Ramachandra thus exhibited a great sense of professionalism, courage and devotion to duty throughout the operations.

Due to shortage of time the Captain abandoned the winching operation, brought the helicopter to low hover close to the hut and ordered MWO SC Sen to jump on to the hut roof with the winch cable. Without hesitation, Master Warrant Officer SC Sen jumped on to the hut roof, hooked the cable to a strong member of the hut and helped the women and children to reach the helicopter. Thus all 17 victims were rescued. Master Warrant Officer Subhash Chandra Sen thus displayed courage and devotion to duty.