,
20 tweets,
4 min read
Read on Twitter
When I hear of a plane crash or pilots bailing out, my mind races back to that day in Dec 1999. This is a slightly long, emotional post, so please bear with me. I write this because I can’t even imagine what Wing Commander Sahil Gandhi’s family must be going through right now.
My mom called me while I was at work. Her voice was trembling. 'Pankaj's plane has crashed,' she said even as I tried to understand who or what she was talking about. (Flight Lt. Pankaj Joshi was my cousin; he was a fighter pilot).
He was posted in Chandigarh at that time and was flying a MiG-21. 'We have to rush to Chandigarh,' my mom said. 'Did he eject? Did he eject?' I kept asking her. She said she had been told he was OK but we had to rush to Chandigarh to take care of him.
My mausi (Pankaj's mother) used to live in Haldwani. She had asked my mom to rush to Chandigarh as we were closer to him in Delhi. I left my office in ITO and headed home. After picking up my father from his office, we left for Chandigarh
We had no address; only knew that my cousin was admitted to the Base hospital in Chandimandir Cantt. I drove into Chandigarh at around 1 am and didn't know where to go. The streets were deserted too. I spotted an Ambassador taxi and flagged it down
I asked the Sikh driver where the Cantt was. His demenour changed suddenly (perhaps he knew about the crash that took place earlier). You won't be able to find it, he said, extremely politely. Follow me in your car, he said. For the next 25 minutes or so, I did
He stopped right outside the hospital, got off his car, and asked me to take care. I rushed to the sentry as the gate of the hospital was closed. He told me I couldn't enter and asked me ton return in the morning.
'But is the pilot ok,' I asked. He said both the pilots were doing fine and there was no way I could meet them. Come back at 7 am, he said. (It did rankle me at that time how the MiG-21 accommodated two pilots, but I guess I was hungry for the good news
I reported back to my parents who were seated in the car. I told my dad that my cousin was ok and we had to return in the morning. It was already 2 am. With no addresses or bookings, I drove towards the bus station. The three of us slept in the car for a bit.
Early in the morning, we returned to the hospital and I met the doctor. 'Is he ok? Can we meet him?', I asked. He asked me to bring whoever else was with me. 'Agar nuksaan hua hoga to sab ko sahan karna padega,' he said. I thought my cousin had lost his legs in the crash.
When my parents entered the room, a young officer informed my dad that my cousin was no more. Both my parents nearly collapsed as they heard the news. My father, a spy who had undertaken many operations, went hysterical for a bit. 'He's dead, he's dead' he kept repeating.
Later, IAF officers took us back to my cousin's house where his parents had also arrived. Everybody was inconsolable. But then there was the matter of seeing the body one last time. That's what broke my heart
Air Force officers escorted all of us back to the hospital and into the mortuary. One by one we saw the lifeless, bloodless body of my cousin. His sister fainted thrice in the hospital. My mausi was inconsolable, My mausaji was in deep shock
Officers were trying to control and cosole everybody. Later that afternoon, he was consigned to flames with full state honours. As jawans fired in the air, I recoiled. I trembled and was completely numb -- I was seeing a cousin that I used to hang out with once a year on a pyre
When we returned, fighter pilots took me out to make me feel better perhaps. After a while, the CO came and started chatting with the officers. He said that he had asked my cousin to eject but he didn't as there were labourers in the field below.
'Joe, eject. Joe, eject,' he kept saying even as my cousin flew the aircraft to a desolate area. the right wing of the aircraft had caught fire right after take-off. The Mig had started tilting towards the right and my cousin was trying to clear it off the fields below
Byt the time he ejected, the plane's wings were sort of perpendicular to the ground. So he was catapulted sideways and not up in the air, which is what the ejection seat is meant to do. When he landed, the seat hadn't even separated
He landed on hard ground with a thud. Army officials cordoned off the area and took him to the Base Hospital where he breathed his last after a few hours. A CoI later found (my mausi told me this) that the fuel filler cap had not been closed properly
The fuel was leaking and that is why the MiG caught fire. That day, the aircraft had returned after a sortie and my cousin wasn't even meant to fly it. He always dreamt of becoming a fighter pilot and that day when he was called for a sortie out of turn, he ran for it
He had made plans for the evening. But he never returned.
