Arunachal crash: Patiala IAF pilot cremated in Tezpur

Bijay Sankar Bora

Tribune News Service

Guwahati, July 8

The mortal remains of Wing Commander Mandeep Singh Dhillon, the pilot of IAF helicopter that crashed in Arunachal Pradesh jungles on July 4 while on a flood-relief mission, were cremated with full military honours at Tezpur in Sonitpur district of Assam this afternoon.

Pilot’s six-year-old son performed the last rites in the presence of officer’s wife, daughter and parents besides top IAF and Army officials of the Tezpur base as also the district administration. Dhillon, considered among the best pilots in the country, belonged to Patiala.

The IAF helicopter had evacuated 169 people from Sagalee in Papum Pare district and Dambuk areas of Arunachal Pradesh before it went down. Dambuk in Lower Dibang Valley district is 350 km east of the state capital Itanagar.

A defence communiqué on Saturday said India had lost one of its finest helicopter pilots. He was the Commanding Officer of the 115 Helicopter Unit at Tezpur.

The Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) took off at 3.50 pm from Pilputu helipad near Sagalee for the heliport at Naharlagun, about 13 km from Itanagar, on its sixth sortie to rescue flood victims.

Dhillon had over 18 years of flying experience in varied terrain, from icy mountains of Ladakh to the jungles of the North-East.

Wing Commander Dhillon came from an Air Force family, with his father having retired as a Squadron Leader. He had completed his schooling from RIMC Dehradun and gone on to join the National Defence Academy (NDA) at Khadakwasla, Pune, as an Air Force cadet.