Justice at last!
http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmo…s+life&id=26000
Squadron leader Bundela fighting for his life
Shruti Verma Singh
Thursday, June 13, 2002 (Pune):
It’s a story of courage despite the toughest adversity. Three years ago, squadron leader P K Bundela shot down a Pakistani Atlantique surveillance plane when it crossed into the Indian air space in Gujarat. But today, he is fighting for his own life after ejecting from a MiG-21.
Despite two major surgeries, the 32-year-old fighter pilot, who is on a life support machine, is paralysed neck down. Doctors at the Military Command hospital in Pune say that the only reason Bundela is still alive is because he simply refuses to give up.
“There is always hope. Even now he is in a state of spinal shock. We can give a period of up to two to three years in which he can improve. But these things take time,” said Colonel A K Dubey, doctor treating Squadron leader Bundela.
Squadron leader Bundela became a national hero when on August 10, 1999 he was called in to intercept a Pakistani Atlantique surveillance plane which had entered Indian air space in the Rann of Kutch.
Bundela is the only IAF pilot to have shot down a Pakistani aircraft since the 1971 war.
Bundela’s last flight as a fighter pilot was on April 4 this year – ironically on the same variant of the MiG he flew in 1999. But this time the engine of the MiG-21 stalled while he was flying at supersonic speeds. Despite all his efforts, the engine didn’t re-start as it is designed to do and he was forced to eject. However, the ejection process itself was not clean and he struck a part of the cockpit as he exited the aircraft, which resulted in serious spinal cord injuries.
Bundela’s crash and a subsequent MiG-21 crash in Jallandhar in May in which seven people were killed on the ground prompted the Air Force to temporarily halt training operations on the variant of the MiG-21 which Bundela was flying.
All these MiGs have since been cleared for full service. Squadron leader P K Bundela may have lived, but more than 40 trained and qualified fighter pilots have been killed in the last decade while flying MiG-21s. However, the top brass of the Air Force refuses to accept the aircraft is outdated, poorly manufactured and prone to disaster.