While saving many lives, Braveheart IAF Commander Mandeep Dhillon hugged death selflessly
Itanagar, July 11: Arunachal has been stucked under the massive landslides due to heavy rainfall where at least more than 300 civilians including children were rescued by the Indian Army. While rescuing people and working with utter dedication towards helping them Indian Air Force Commanders, unfortunately, gave up their lives. Salute to all of these Bravehearts.
Arunachal Pradesh groped into the shackles of torrential rains and massive landslides, which made the situations worse as several families were stranded.
Commander Mandeep and the team gathered that the weather isn't appropriate to carry civilians and decided not to risk their lives. It is then when they flew without any people on board but within minutes after taking off the ground station lost contact with them.
Later it came to everyone's notice that the helicopter has crashed and we've lost everyone onboard. Along with Wing Commander Mandeep, we've lost flight engineer, a policeman from Arunachal Pradesh, and Flight Lieutenant Singh in the ill-fated Advanced Light Helicopter Dhruv.
"We are deeply hurt and shocked by the news. It is an irreparable loss. He was to achieve great success in the IAF given his intelligence and young age.
This unfortunate incident has cut the dream short." said one of Wing Commander Dhillon's neighbours, H S Puri, a retired engineer from the Military Engineering Service (MES).
The demise has shocked everyone who's ever known Mandeep, for they knew that he was a man of sheer excellence. An alumnus of the Rashtriya Indian Military College in Dehradun and the National Defence Academy or NDA, he was a long-distance runner and has won almost every run he's ever participated.
"Wing Commander Dhillon has 18 years of experience. He has flown in many difficult terrains and has been part of challenging missions. He was arguably one of the finest helicopter pilots.
From icy mountains to the jungles of Arunachal Pradesh, he volunteered to go on any mission," said a senior IAF officer. Thousands of people at the Indian Air in Patiala are breaking into helpless tears, but there's only so much we can say in the honour of a man who's served the country selflessly.
"Indomitable we are, Fearless we are!" Indian Army is Pride of our nation. Their supreme sacrifice and willpower to battle for our security, some lay down their lives for honour, for 'India'. Bravehearts, on behalf of civilians we all salute you.
We all owe our freedom, safety and security to you as you guard us and our nation.