AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 5 – War Diary CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 99 of 332 7 1971 War - A Brave Dakota Pilot's Contribution Air Cmde Nitin Sathe Genre: War Diary "I knew nothing about the 'Kilo' Flight till I was detailed to join them on December 1, 1971, along with Squadron Leader S K Chaudhary, a senior pilot and QFI (qualified flying instructor), flying into Dimapur (in Nagaland) where they were based," remembers Air Commodore Arun Dattraya Karandikar (retd). "The raison d' etre for creating this unit was to give these pilots a sense of participation in the war to liberate East Pakistan from their Pakistani rulers," says Air Commodore Karandikar. The aircraft Kandy Sir was allotted was the HJ-882. It had nosed over the previous day during a full-power run by a technician and both propeller tips had got bent! The aircraft was declared serviceable after the propellers were changed and caution was given not to use maximum RPM (revolutions per minute). "The HJ-882 was like my personal possession till December 16," Kandy Sir smiles. "There were nine PAF (Pakistan air force) pilots, the senior-most being Squadron Leader Sultan Mahmud (who later became the chief of the Bangladesh air force). I remember a Flight Lieutenant Alam who had flown an F-86, another Flight Lieutenant Alam who was a C-130 pilot, a Captain Shahbuddin from a regional airline and one Sharafuddin. "Sultan Mahmud and the fighter pilot Badrul Alam were trained on an Alouette (Chetak) helicopter by Squadron Leader C M Singla; the rest on Otter aircraft by Squadron Leader Ghoshal. Both aircraft were fitted with 30 mm rocket pods and a machine gun firing sideways in the rear -- for which the door had been removed on the left side -- operated by an airman crew."