Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman today flied MiG Bison Aircraft over Air Force Day parade at Hindon Air Base in Ghaziabad. The 51 Squadron to which Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman belonged to will be awarded a unit citation by Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria, news agency ANI reported.
According to News18, IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman participated in today's celebrations by leading the flypast in a MiG 21 Bison.
In the event 3 Mirage 2000 aircraft & 2 Su-30MKI fighter aircraft will fly in ‘Avenger formation’. These planes will be lown by pilots who took part in Balakot air strike, reported ANI. Even Air Fighter Pilots who took part in Balakot air strikes have been included in the parade as a mark of tribute to the teams which carried out the strike on February 26 and thwarted the Pakistani aerial attack on February 27.
Wing Commander Varthaman was captured by Pakistani forces on February 27 and released days later. After healing from injuries, he returned to the cockpit in less than six months. The Air Force's Institute of Aerospace Medicine in Bengaluru gave the go-ahead to him to fly again after a thorough medical evaluation.
India bombed the Jaish camp in Balakot in response to a terror attack in which a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb near a convoy of the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama, killing 40 soldiers.
