How the Indian Air Force came close to destroying eight of its own Jet fighters during the 1962 war. The first ever attempted "Scorched Earth" order in history. Based on the recollections of Air Marshal Trilochan Singh.
In the olden days - there was no internet through which you can email a Powerpoint presentation - but there were some magnificient Canberra bombers to act as a courier to deliver that most important presentation....as one pilot found out...
Moved by the plight of a group of stranded soldiers on the Amar Post, the CO of a HU decides in haste to undertake a sortie in bad visibility.. and mid way into the sortie, starts regretting it. Its the ubiquitous presence of 'The Track' that helps overcome the dis-orientation and danger.
Air Chief Marshal Idris Hasan Latif (IND/1804 GD(P)), former Chief of Air Staff and WW2 Veteran has passed away in Hyderabad on 30th April 2018. His death marks just about six months since he lost his wife, Mrs Bilkees Latif. ACM Latif has been unwell the past year . And his passing away less than an year of losing the Marshal of the Air Force is a double blow to the IAF fraternity.
The first landing at Nyoma was ostensibly carried out by an An-32 in 2009, but lost among the records are the details of a flight carried out 47 years later - Now a photograph has surfaced proving the first landing in 1962.
Wg Cdr P K Raveendran was a young under-trainee flight engineer on a VIP flight to Jorhat in November 1977 when tragedy struck. The miraculous survival story of the Prime Minister of India, Shri Morarji Desai was tempered by the tragic loss of the Flight Crew. The author recollects the events surrounding the flight, the crash and subsequent rescue effort - and as a post script - his journey to the crash site forty years later!.
With the escalation of the Siachen operations in 1984, Contingency plans were developed to utilise high performance fighter aircraft from Leh airfield as and when needed. Air Marshal A D Joshi narrates the first landing of the MiG-23BN at Leh airport - The planning and training for this event was no simple matter, as this narration will make it evident.
Article updated with two new photos!
Its an end of an era - Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh, the only five star rank officer in the IAF, a legendary and much beloved name in the Air Force Fraternity is no more. He was the Air Chief during the critical 1965 India-Pakistan war at a young age of 46. He passed away yesterday (16th September 2017) in New Delhi. A statement from the Ministry of Defence said he was admitted to the hospital on Saturday morning following a cardiac arrest, and breathed his last at 7.47 PM. Prior to his demise he was one of the last surviving officers of the IAF who had trained at RAF Cranwell, and also one of the last surviving DFC awardees of the IAF.
Air Marshal G C S Rajwar , commissioned in 1963 as part of the 26th Navigator Course, is a veteran of two wars. He was the navigator to the CO of No.106 Squadron in the 1971 war, then Wg Cdr R S Benegal. He wrote this piece about his missions in the war as an "Afterword" for the autobiographical book by late Air Commodore R S Benegal - Burma to Japan with the Azad Hind .
Read about the officer with the oldest birth date to be commissioned in the Indian Air Force - Khan Bahadur Haji Gulmast Khan, a retired Deputy Superintendent of Police in Peshawar.
In the 1950s it was not uncommon for IAF aircraft to undertake "force landings" in the country side. Squadron Leader Kesavachandran narrates the story of an 'expedition' to document the evidence for a Court of Inquiry - much before the advent of GPS, handheld cameras, digitial media and the social media.