Sudhir Kumar Sinha

On 4th Apr 1978, Flying Officer Sudhir Kumar Sinha got airborne in a supersonic aircraft on a training flight. Approximately thirty minutes after take off and about 120 nautical miles away from base, his aircraft had a total electrical failure. His very high Frequency Radio/Telephony sets suddenly faded out and within a couple of minutes all other electrical services ceased to function. He was thus left without Radio/Telephony contact or any navigational aids over desert terrain, which had very few land marks, he calculated his course back to base and headed back with the help of the standby compass which was the only direction indicating instrument available to him. The electrical failure also made it impossible for him to use the entire contents of the auxiliary fuel tank and the fuel gauges were inoperative. He, therefore, had to land back at base in the shortest possible time. His electrical trimmer systems were also inoperative and he had to prepare himself for landing out of trim with a forward centre of gravity configuration.

On his return to base, Flying officer Sinha lowered his undercarriage in preparation for landing and found that his nose wheel cocked to one side. With full knowledge of the disastrous consequences which could result on landing with a cocked nose wheel, Flying Officer Sinha elected to go ahead and brought the aircraft under control immediately after touchdown. He thus saved a valuable aircraft which would otherwise have been lost.

In this action, Flying Officer Sudhir Kumar Sinha displayed great courage, determination and professional skill of a very high order