Prashant Kumar Bundela

Squadron Leader Prashant Kumar Bundela (14 December 1970 – 19 August 2002) was a fighter pilot of the Indian Air Force who shot down a Pakistan Navy Breguet Atlantic over the Rann of Kutch in what is known as the Altantique Incident.^[1] He received the prestigious Vayusena medal for this operation on 26 January 2000.^[2] He died in 2002 in an aircraft crash.^[3]

Early life

Bundela was born on 14 December 1970 in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan.^[4] On 14 December 1991, he was commissioned in the fighter stream and posted to a squadron in the Western Sector.^[5]

War Operations

10 August 1999, two IAF MiG-21 interceptor aircraft of No. 45 Squadron took off from the Naliya air base at 11:00 a.m. to investigate an unidentified aircraft at the Indian side of the border. They identified the intruder as a Pakistani Atlantique reconnaissance aircraft. After a series of maneuvers, they received clearance to shoot down the Pakistani plane.^[6] At 11:17 am IST, Bundela fired an infrared homing R-60 air-to-air missile which hit the engine on the port side of the plane causing it to burst into flames and crash in the Kori Creek wasteland.^[7]

Death

On 4 April 2002, Bundela was on a sortie from Adampur to Halwara with Flight Lieutenant S.K. Nayak in a MiG-21 Bison. While over Jalandhar his aircraft began sputtering due to a lack of fuel being pumped into the R-25 engine and it started flaming. They both ejected, but Bundela landed on his neck while Nayak parachuted safely.^[8] He was paralyzed due to spinal injuries, after four months of struggling in the intensive care unit he died on 19 August 2002.