NEW DELHI: Commander Nishant Singh, a handsome young naval MiG-29K The fighter pilot operating from the INS Vikramaditya aircraft carrier, had asked his commander-in-chief for permission to drop “a nuclear bomb on himself” and “willingly sacrifice himself in time of absolute peace” to enter the “spiral of the marriage cemetery. “just seven months ago.
“All good things finally have to come to an end. Welcome to hell, “replied Captain Mrigank Sheokhand, commanding officer of the” White Tigers “squadron based at INS Hansa Naval Air Station in Goa. Soon after, Nishant married his girlfriend. Nayaab Randhawa In May.
On Thursday night, the Navy launched a massive manhunt with planes and warships to track down Nishant after his two-seat MiG-29K fighter crashed into the arabian sea around 5 pm. The other pilot was successfully rescued, but Nishant has yet to be found.
It was the fourth MiG-29K crash since January 2018. India acquired 45 of these supersonic fighters for $ 2 billion from Russia to operate from INS Vikramaditya, which was installed in November 2013 under a separate $ 2.33 thousand deal. millions.
Captain Sheokhand, who was Nishant’s instructor during his flight training, was involved in a MiG-29K crash after a bird impact in Goa in November 2019. Fortunately, he and his co-pilot had escaped safely.
Nishant, in her 30s, apparently also made it out Thursday night. Even as the search and rescue operation for him on the high seas continued through Friday night, the Navy ordered a board of inquiry to determine whether a technical problem or something else led to the accident.
According to military tradition, young officers have to seek the approval of their COs to marry, which is rarely rejected. But Nishant’s semi-official May 9 letter, titled “Permission to Bite the Bullet,” had gone viral on social media earlier this year due to the jokes involved.
In his letter, Nishant assured his CO that he and Nayaab, a famous hairstylist he had met at school, had performed three years of “extensive survival and compatibility testing (SCTT)” to exclude the possibility of their killing each other. each.
Nishant said she wanted to follow in the footsteps of Captain Sheokhand and “many other brave men” to get married. He even brazenly referred to his inability to recover from “his space disorientation trance,” a challenge faced by all airmen, especially naval ones.
Captain Sheokhand should “forgive this obviously suicidal and utterly amateurish folly of a maneuver on my part. I promise never to repeat such a performance in the air or show it to my pilots in formation, “he said, inviting his commander to his wedding to” personally witness the massacre.
Captain Sheokhand quickly gave his approval. The couple tied the knot in a small living room wedding, and their parents blessed them via a Zoom video call in times of the pandemic.
On video: The MiG-29K plane crashes into the sea; pilot disappears
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