It was a clear day with fine weather apart from a little dust haze when 22 year old Indian Air Force Flying Office Krishnaswamy Chandra Shekhar took off on a routine morning training flight from Halwara.
He was with No. 2 Squadron and flying a French built OURAGON MD 450.
It was while practicing aerobatic manoeuvres at around 2000 to 3000 ft AGL that the aircraft became uncontrollable.
The aircraft went into a very flat spin, airspeed approx 120kts and with no prospect of recovery that Flg. Off. Shekhar made the decision to eject.
Shekhar initiated the ejection sequence of his SNCASO ejection seat. By now the atitude of the aircraft, known by those in the Indian Air Force as the TOOFANI. was nose down below the horizon. First the canopy was manually jettisoned, this proved to be more difficult than was expected. From the decison to eject at 8,000 feet with the canopy problems at around 3,000 Flg. Off. Shekhar finally left the aircraft and descended as normally. That day over farmland near Narangwal Village in the Punjab, "KC" became another grateful member of the Irvin "Caterpillar Club".
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Some extracts used in this Biography were provided thanks to the generosity of Krishnaswamy SHEKHAR |
