AFVOA Newsletter May 2020

Section 3 - Memoirs Newsletter No. 1 / 2020 P a g e 30 | 101 We then reported to Sqn Ldr (Nobby) Clark, the Officer in Charge PAI Flight and Wg Cdr (Mickey) Blake, the Chief Instructor for debrief and recounted the happenings. The pilots of other missions over the area also reported their observations of the smoldering target that was visible from long distances. The whole episode of 18th was in full view of our Navy’s INS Delhi and our Army on the mainland shores with whom our Air Force FAC was attached. I am sure they would have made their reports to their respective higher echelons as observed by them. This was the very first experience for almost all of us and the realisation that we were in a real shooting war with a real enemy (that was far from the usual range practice) started to sink in. There was no talk of any Gallantry Award at all as none of us had any familiarity of this aspect. Log Book entry for Goa Operations from Air Marshal Ramachandran. The aircraft's identity is shown as IB827. Note the news clipping from 1961 about the sinking of the boat