Abhinandan will be back to flying, if found medically fit

Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 2

If found medically fit, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman will go back to flying fighters and to his own unit of the Indian Air Force, currently based at Awantipora near Srinagar.  

On Saturday, there began a series of tests to examine his health. They include CT scans and X-rays to examine his spine besides toxicology tests of his blood to determine whether he had been injected with any serum by Pakistani military doctors.

Tests commenced at a top military health facility in the national capital. Results of the CT scans and X-rays will be known by Sunday while those of the toxicology tests will take a few days.

“He will go back to flying and to his own unit, if found medically fit. Wait for the tests,” said a senior official.

The spine of the pilot can get concussions on ejection from a fighter jet. The pilot seat ejects with a massive force. Pilots are trained in the process of ejection on simulators. In a conflict scenario and real fight situation like the one faced by Wing Commander Varthaman, years of training and mental agility of landing in enemy territory and surviving count.

The toxicology test will examine if any long-term acting chemical or serum was injected into his body. Wing Commander Varthaman was treated at a Pakistan military facility and was reportedly injected with painkillers and other antibiotics to treat the injuries on his face that he had received after being beaten up by locals.

The pilot had ejected some 7 km into the Pakistan occupied Kashmir and fired in the air in self-defence before being overpowered by locals.

Sources said the pilot met his mother, father Air Marshal S Varthaman (retd), wife Squadron Leader Tanvi Marwah (retd) and their child. The family meeting in New Delhi lasted half an hour.

Sqn Ldr Marwah was a helicopter pilot of the IAF and has retired. She was a short service commissione officer while his father, also a fighter pilot, had commanded the vital Eastern Air Command before retiring in 2012.