This post is about five brave but unsung crew members of Indian Air Force who in order save the life of the then Indian Prime Minister, Morarji Desai, sacrificed their lives on November 4, 1977.

On that fateful day, Indian Air Force's Tupolev-124K (V-643) nick named Pushpak Rath (meaning floral chariot) took off from New Delhi's Palam airport for Jorhat in Assam carrying the Prime Minister and his entourage, for a six-day tour to the North-Eastern India.

The aircraft reached Jorhat 17:03 hours. It was almost dark, the airfield lacked facilities for night landing and on top of it the weather was really bad. The aircraft did not land in its first attempt as it was slightly high and not fully aligned with the runway. In the second approach, though it was almost in line with the runway but it descended to dangerously low levels, with the result that its nose wheel ploughed into the tree tops and it crash landed in a rice field in 'Tekelagaon' village near the airfield. The Prime Minister and his entourage, who were at the back of the aircraft, survived the crash and came out walking and unscathed, however none of the crew members survived.

Actual reason for the crash is not known but because of bad weather the officer in charge of Air Traffic Control was providing the information on cloud base after assessing it with naked eyes and his assessment may have gone wrong or a sudden 'down draft' could have pushed it down. Moreover subsequent enquiry showed that both the altimeters of the plane also were faulty which may have misled the pilots during descent.

The crew had shown exemplary courage and extreme presence of mind to save the Prime Minister. They made the crash landing in such a way that the cockpit took the full impact. That is where their sacrifice stands out. Just before the plane crash-landed, the crew had asked a trainee engineer who was in the cockpit to move to the rear - a clear proof that the crew had purposefully nose landed the plane fully knowing the consequence. The trainee engineer survived. Had they landed the plane on its belly, the aircraft would have exploded and the story would have been very different.


Photo Credit: http://www.outlookindia.com

The valiant crew members who lost their lives were;

1. Wing Commander Clarence D'Lima,
2. Wing Commander Joginder Singh,
3. Squadron Leader Mathew Cyriac,
4. Squadron Leader V V S Sankar and
5. Flight Lieutenant O P Arora.

After the accident the Indian Parliament (Lok Sabha) did pass a resolution but the most tragic part is that none of the deceased crew members received any posthumous award for their extreme sacrifice.



The report of the Court of Inquiry headed by Air Marshall D. Subaiah could not be traced on the web but as per press reports, the authorities cited human error in the incident to deny the gallant crew members the status of martyrs - what a pity!

However, the IAF did recognise two heroes from that crash - and they were Flt Lt P K Raveendran (now retd Gp Capt) and Corporal K N Upadhyay. Both were in the passenger compartment and they were instrumental in evacuating the other passengers out of the aircraft. Upadhayay was injured but he was at the forefront in evacuating all the passengers. After the crash, both the officer and airmen trekked their way to Jorhat airfield to fetch help.

In recognition, both were awarded the Shaurya Chakra (The third highest peacetime gallantry award) in 1979.

Main sources of info:
http://www.warbirdsofindia.com
http://www.samachaar.in
Jagan Pillarisetti (PVS Jagan Mohan)

Note: The placemarked location of crash is approximate and I seek readers views confirming or intimating the exact location.

Great post CuriousJM really interesting, a very sad incident indeed, And you can only have admiration for the crew, I mean what would any of us do?

Wonderful post, really interesting, thank you