Hrishabh Tiwari
09/07/2021
No matter what cohort we belong to, a fly-past by fighter jet invariably makes us turn our head towards the sky in sheer admiration of the speed and agility it possesses. Real as it gets, there's nothing that comes even close to the feat of flying a war machine; risk, thrill, responsibility and showmanship, a fighter aircraft holds all the calibers that an adrenaline-seeker fancies. Indian Air Force standing tall among the world's top air powers maintains a high standard of operationality. 'Man' and the 'Machine' both time and again undergo numerous rigorous tests to make the final cut, however many times due to human error or mechanical malfunctions, the aviators find themselves in a jeopardy and the easiest way out is 'Ejection'.
Ejection, undoubtedly a life-saving boon to the pilot for withstanding the harsh vagaries of flying but as simple as it sounds, ejecting from an aircraft is that very twisted. For a pilot, it is a matter of a few seconds for a swashbuckling flight to turn into a last one, the challenges that go hand in hand with the ejection are far more knotty than flying itself. IAF air bases often suffer owing to the fact that areas close to the AF stations and bases have excessive urban encroachment, any dicey situation in the cockpit may lead to an inevitable tragedy. A pilot who is authorised to eject in a perilous situation is often caught in two minds; exile the warplane which equipped with drop tanks and bombs may uncontrollably crash in an urban area leading to catastrophic outcome or do one's utmost to land the wild and turbulent plane but while doing so risk their own life.
In the service span expanding more than eight decades, IAF pilots have often dealt with demanding situations with ease, be it routinely supplying logistics to soldiers guarding Siachen at an elevation of 17,000 ft, carrying out sorties in enemy territories or even flying a jet without canopy, the air warriors of Indian Air Force have handled these horrid situation with cool mind. Among all these greatest air aces, the chronicle of Air Marshal VR Chaudhari's and Squadron Leader Rijul Sharma's eventful time in air embraces its place. In 1994, Air Marshal VR Chaudhari, then a Squadron Leader and part of the No. 28 Squadron "First Supersonics" took off from Pune in a MiG-29 jet. Instantly after the take off, the aircraft's canopy blew away, Sq Ldr Chaudhari was caught in an emergency situation that could have compelled any rookie pilot to eject from the 'high-ticket' plane but not this skilled and gutsy air officer. Sq Ldr Chaudhari took upon himself and bringing his skills and year's of training to task landed the dodgy MiG-29 safely.
Two decade later, an indistinguishable tragedy struck Squadron Leader Rijul Sharma who happens to hail from the same No. 28 Squadron, once Air Marshal VR Chaudhari was part of. On a fine morning, Sq Ldr Sharma received flying orders from his unit commander to conduct an 'airframe and engine sortie' on the same type of Russian aircraft. Around 110 km away from the Jamnagar Air Base and flying at Mach 1.1, Rijul Sharma felt smash into his shoulder and when he looked up, he encountered a pilot's worst nightmare, his canopy perspex was completely shattered. At this point in time, he was exposed to temperatures close to -28 °C and compelled to contend with extreme winds but one thing kept Sq Ldr from pushing the ejecting trigger, he was flying very close to the Jamnagar oil industries and uncontrolled crash would have lead to a disaster. Keeping whole 'nine-yards' in mind, once again, a calculative and calm-headed air officer of Indian Air Force steered the plane away from the danger zone and finally brought the MiG back home. For the gallant efforts and exemplary display of courage and skills, Squadron Leader Rijul Sharma was honoured with Vayu Sena medal in 2017.
Crazy as it looks, the backstory of this Russian pilot flying a supersonic jet without a canopy is even lunatic. The picture is no mid-air emergency rather a series of stunts being shot for a movie, the film required a warplane to be flown without roof depicting an emergency situation so the film-makers instead of employing computer-graphics resorted to fabricating a real world setting. The highly skilled pilot was paid to fly this Russia made SU-35UB Supersonic Jet or we can call 'tipped' to steer a 'cabrio'. 'Reel' is very different from 'real', the hired pilots had to take-off and land numerous times to gather enough visuals for the movie, the stunt although very dreading was performed in a 'manageable condition' with a lot of safety and supervision. But if this didn't get you on board, then the picture where the rear pilot is made to eject from the supersonic jet for the same movie would definitely get you enthralled.
Russians are known for living life king-size and even in this case, not only the Air Force pilots were flying the Russian jet without a canopy but also the rear seated pilot ejected at quite a substantial speed, the first pilot remained seated which makes one wonder of the audacity and the daringness of these Air Force pilots. In an interview, the Su-35UB pilot said, "The maximum speed I achieved on the jet plane without a canopy glass was around two times greater than speed of sound. While on this speed I even managed to pull out my fingers in glove for an inch or two outside – it became heated very fast because of immense friction force plane undergoes with the air."
"Usually such tests were conducted in winter time, so it was deadly cold without a canopy and I was pretty glad when this heating began, counting minutes before the plane would reach enough speed/velocity so that the air around becomes hot enough. But it wasn’t the main problem for me. In my personal rating of the dangers connected with such tests one of the most bad sides was the extreme roar. Because of this extreme roaring you couldn’t hear the radio so you were flying in deaf mode, you were afraid to pull throttle harder just because going faster was meaning going louder," said military pilot Yevgeny Ivanovich Frolov
It is pretty unusual to see a pilot at the stick of an airborne supersonic jet without a canopy but its not that rare either, test pilots often undertake the task of inspecting the jet's emergency escape procedures in a real and dynamic environment which is very vital in development and testing of the aircraft. The pilots take risk but the risk is calculated, the no-canopy tests are a gambling game, at any moment anything can go wrong even if all the parameters like wind, jet-speed, weather, emergency support in air and on ground are pre-planned and well-monitored. In 1988, British Aerospace(BAe, predecessor of BAE systems) test pilot Keith Hartley flew in Tornado XZ630 without canopy to test the emergency escape procedures of the aircraft.
"Sharp as a tack"
Air Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari or fondly called 'Chau' recently took over as Vice Chief of Air Staff. He is an alumnus of National Defence Academy and Air Force Academy, he has also served as Instructor at Defence Services Staff College, Wellington and Defence Services Command and Staff College(DSCSC), Zambia. Air Marshal VR Chaudhari is a Qualified Flight Instructor, Examiner and Instrument Rating Instructor, prior to the current appointment as VCOAS, Air Marshal Chaudhari was chief of the Western Air Command(WAC) which looked after the air security of sensitive areas like Ladakh and Northern India. Commissioned into the fighter stream of Indian Air Force on December 29, 1982, Air Marshal Chaudhari has gained over 3800 hours of flying experience on a wide variety of aircrafts like MiG-21, MiG-23 MF, MiG 29 and Su-30 MKI but among years of flying experience, the flight he undertook in 1994 from Lohegaon Air Force Station, Pune would be the most memorable as it really gave the consummate Air Officer a run for his money.
In the year 1994, Air Marshal VR Chaudhari, then a Squadron Leader was Flight Commander of the No. 28 Squadron "First Supersonics" based in Pune. The No. 28 Squadron was formed after the 1962 Indo-Sino war and very peculiar to its name, "First Supersonics" squadron was the foremost unit to operate the Russian Mach-2 Mig-21 F-13(Fishbed-C or Type 74) supersonic jets that had been recently inducted into the Indian Air Force, this squadron formed with the elite IAF fighter pilots of those time was based at Tezpur AFS, Assam. In the year 1985, after handing over the MiG-21 (Type 77) aircrafts to MiG Operational Flying Training Unit(MOFTU) which provided operational flying to the trainee pilots on MiG-21, the unit was once again given the honour of being one of the early two squadrons to be converted to the 4th Gen Russian Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29 supersonic jet.
The No. 28 Squadron had moved to Lohegaon Air Force Station, Pune with the newly inducted MiG-29s which were regarded as the best BVR(Beyond Visual Range) fighters in 1980s and 1990s. The then Squadron Leader and Flight Commander VR Chaudhari was Second-in-Command of the unit who loved to take to the air in the MiGs whenever possible. On a fine optimistic day, Sq Ldr VR Chaudhari taxied a MiG-29 "Fulcrum" on the single strip runway of the Pune AFS to get airborne for a test flight. Before a pilot takes to the air, few rules and guidelines known as Pre-Flight SOPs need to be followed by the pilot as well as the ground duty staff. The work of ground duty staff both technical and non-technical is as crucial as of the aviator handling the stick, the technical staff can be rightly called as the power behind the punch but they are seldom appreciated for their work. No matter what aircraft, it can never take off without a clearance from the technical team.
Flight instruments, radios, brakes, fuel and cockpit latch all checked, Sq Ldr Chaudhari was ready and waiting to throttle the twin Klimov RD-33 turbofan engines, slowly releasing the brakes and racing on the 2 km runway of Pune AFS, Sq Ldr Chaudhari took off only to be seen flying the 'beast' through the clouds. What looked to be a promising and delightful flight soon turned into a horror, while VR Chaudhari was on a Mach run or understandably flying at a speed between 1300-1500 km/hr, his canopy completely detached from the cockpit frame and blew away. It was one of the many mishaps that could ever take place while flying a jet at a speed equal to that of sound.
All the alarms in the cockpit started buzzing to their fullest just as the canopy frame blew, Sq Ldr Chaudhari faced a critical mid-air emergency that would have compelled any neophyte to press the ejection trigger but not this gutsy air warrior. He or his colleagues had never faced a situation like this before hence it all came down to the skills, intuitions and training of the officer to get himself out of this mishap. Quickly swinging into action, VR Chaudhari lowered his seat down to the maximum extent possible to tackle the high speed wind blowing right into his helmet, one can imagine the adversity of the situation if they have ever ridden in a convertible car but here the velocity being just 10 times greater compared to that of car made the things worst.
The situation became even tougher as at such a velocity, the roaring of the engines made it impossible to listen the radio signals from the Air control tower, but as they say, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going". Sq Ldr Chaudhari with all the circumstances against him showed an immense display of skills and gut and managed to land the aircraft safely to avert a tragedy that might have resulted in a fatal accident. In an internal investigation, it was found out that the MiG-29's canopy had not locked properly despite the cockpit indication confirming it was. The investigation concluded stating that the SOPs and guidelines were not followed properly by the airframe crew and ground duty staff that led to such a mid-air emergency. While Sq Ldr Chaudhari is concerned, he came out unharmed from that MiG-29 sortie and later flew in many successful combat operations viz. Op-Safed Sagar and Op-Parakram.
In the year 2004, he was honoured with Vayu Sena Medal and his award citation read, "During 'Op Parakram', his Sqn was tasked to deploy at three locations as per the war plans. With only nine pilots and one trainer ac available, he alternated between the bases so as to complete the revalidation of augmented pilots in record time and become operational at the earliest from all three locations. While carrying out day and night Operational Readiness Platform (ORP) duties, he flew over 150 sorties and took part in all exercises. Being the only QF1 at one base, he also undertook the conversion of three under training pilots. In consultation with Tactics and Air Combat Development and Training Establishment (TACDE), he helped in development of tactics for Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Vs BVR missile engagements and interception of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. While remaining deployed, his Sqn provided Dissimilar Air Combat Training to all the MiG-21 Sqns within the command, thereby enhancing their operational status."
Lived to fight another day
"I looked up. The entire canopy had shattered and a part of it had blown off, with some parts crashing into the cockpit. I felt something smash into my shoulder and a sharp pain. It was a moment of shock. It took whole seconds for me to fully understand what had happened"
These were the words of Squadron Leader Rijul Sharma who had manage to safely land a MiG-29 supersonic jet on the tarmac of Jamnagar Air Force Station after the aircraft's canopy perspex blasted mid-air. What can be portrayed as a carbon copy incident, the young Air Officer of Indian Air Force, Squadron Leader Rijul Sharma encountered the same nemesis that was once vanquished by Air Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari. Sq Ldr Rijul Sharma hails from the very same squadron erst Air Marshal Chaudhari had been part of. In the year 2007, to make way for the Sukhoi-30MKI, No. 28 "First Supersonics" Squadron move out of Pune and shifted to Jamnagar, the No. 28 Squadron celebrated the Golden Jubilee in the year 2013.
An alumnus of Air Force Academy's 181 course, Squadron Leader Rijul Sharma was commissioned into the fighter stream of the Indian Air Force and was posted with the "First Supersonics" at Jamnagar Air Force Station, Gujarat. Born in an aviation family, Rijul was sure shot to follow the footsteps of his father Wing Commander Sandeep Sharma(retd) who had himself flown into many combat operations. After commissioning on June 21, 2008, Rijul Sharma had set his first foot towards the milestone he had been dreaming about all these years, the fascination and inspiration to join the Indian Air Force was imbued into him through the narrations of the combat stories by his father who had flown DC-3 Dakota Transport Aircrafts and Canberra bombers into the sensitive areas of North-east. Although the gloomy clouds of war were left well behind yet Indian Armed Forces keep themselves ready for a war and train accordingly.
Squadron Leader Rijul Sharma had got married few months back to Deepika and they stayed together at the Officers Quarter inside the premises of Jamnagar Air Force Station. June 1, 2016, pretty much an usual day in Jamnagar, the sun was out early morning and the strong breeze carried the mild scent of oil from the Gulf of Kutch's long stretched oil refineries. Rijul got up early morning, a habit he proudly carried from the Air Force Academy where the day commences even before the sun is out, after doing stretching and mild exercises, Squadron Leader kissed goodbye to Deepika and headed towards the Operational briefing room which was at some distance from the Quarters. The day seemed to be fine and weather excellent for a swashbuckling sortie, the 30 year old Air Officer received the flying orders from his Squadron Commander, that particular day he was to carry out an "airframe and engine sortie". These test flights often take place in order to see the aircraft through and thorough, the jet is put under many stressing maneuvers that examines the vital functions of aircraft and ensures it is in top condition.
Strapping the G-suit, Squadron Leader marched towards the hangar(a shed where aircrafts are parked), Rijul looked up towards the sky and couldn't look for long, the sun was beaming at its peak and made it impossible to glance for long even through the 'Ray-Ban aviators', "That's where the visor of the flight helmets come in handy," thought Sq Ldr Rijul Sharma. Carefully examining the MiG-29 jet from outside, Rijul climbed into the familiar cockpit and made himself comfortable in the Zvezda K-36DM ejection seat, slowly taxiing the MiG supersonic jet towards the tarmac of Jamnagar AFS, Squadron Leader Sharma awaited the final 'go' call from the Air Control tower.
Once the signal call was heard through the radio talkie installed in the helmet, Rijul throttled the twin RD-33 engines capable of delivering 18,000 to 20,000 pounds of thrust, releasing the brakes and racing on the black tarmac, the MiG-29 jet launched itself into the air releasing reddish orange gust of afterburners. After climbing to an apt altitude, Rijul Sharma flattened the steep climb and prepared to increase the velocity towards the supersonic corridor or just over the speed of sound to perform torturous maneuvers on the MiG aircraft for which he had taken off. Exciting it is! To be able to move through the air faster than sound, Sq Ldr Sharma was all set and moving, he steered the plane to Mach 1.1 or just over 1,350 kmph leaving behind the Jamnagar Air Force Station which was getting blurred in background with each passing moment.
At about a distance of 100 km from the Jamnagar Air Station, Sq Ldr Rijul Sharma heard some noise which seemed very alienating in the cockpit, he had been invariably flying the MiG-29s and he never heard such a clangour. In the pressurised cockpit, a pilot only hears a steady and mild hum of the engine, voice of ground control through the radio or their own breathing, but this noise was none of them. Suddenly Rijul felt some smash into his right shoulder, when he looked up, he was shocked and aghast, the whole canopy perspex of the aircraft had shattered to pieces and was blowing apart before his eyes. However daring a person is, once met with such a fate is sure shot to be trembled with fear.
Strapped to the seat and flying at a whistle-stop velocity, Squadron Leader Rijul Sharma's head was thrown left and right with the breakneck wind blowing right through him. The turbo speed wind allied with the high-altitude was proving to be deadly, not only Sq Ldr Sharma's shoulder was smashed, he was exposed to temperature close to -28 °C that had rendered his face and shoulders almost numb. The aircraft was flying with great turbulence caused by the open cockpit, the time was running out, if Squadron Leader Sharma didn't take matter into his hands quickly, he would lose consciousness resulting in a fatal jet crash.
Holding the control stick firmly, Squadron Leader Rijul Sharma shook the initial shock away and took control of the situation, Rijul made a series of quick and precise calculation. Lowering his seat to the maximum possible extent, he started to deescalate and descend in order to tackle the low frostbiting temperature and wind, descending to an elevation of 5,000 ft, Rijul kick backed to a velocity of 500 kmph which was still very high considering the pain and discomfort he was in. The problems had mounted as the roaring jet engines were making it impossible to hear the Air control staff on the radio talkie, Sq Ldr Sharma wasn't clear if only his canopy had shattered or any other part of MiG jet had malfunctioned. Landing in such a situation would have meant, no time for ejection. Rijul Sharma was caught in two minds whether he should steer the plane slowly towards the tarmac and try to arrest land in an emergency or eject from the warplane, which definitely seemed right as he would have excellent chance of survivability.
As mentioned earlier, ejection as simple as it sounds is that very tricky. After assessing the situation, Rijul found that he was flying very close to the oil refineries that are spread across Jamnagar, "If the jet is abandoned now, it would cause a tragic accident resulting in loss of not one but numerous lives", thought Rijul Sharma, therefore he decided to give a final shot to land the dodgy MiG-29 jet. Going by the history, these kind of emergency landing often result in a sad ending, the pressure of the landing would be so high that Sq Ldr may get thrown out even though well strapped but the gutsy Air warrior had decided to risk his all to land the supersonic jet.
Slowly descending, he managed to reach an altitude where he got some rest from the frostbiting wind and when the foggy visor became clear, he could see the runway strip which boosted his morale and gave him the extra bit of push needed in such horrid situation. Bringing years of flight experience, emergency training drill of the Academy, Squadron Leader Rijul Sharma finally made the touchdown. Both, pilot and the aircraft had landed without serious damage, Rijul was rushed to the hospital where his wife breathed a sigh of relief seeing him safe and sound. The skilled and stout-hearted Air Officer had brought the wild jet back home and saved the day for good.
‘I had no hesitation in jumping back into a cockpit after what happened,’ says Sqn Ldr Sharma.
On the occasion of Republic Day in 2017, Squadron Leader Rijul Sharma was honoured with the Vayu Sena medal, the press release of MoD read, "On 01 Jun 16, Squadron Leader Rijul Sharma was authorised to fly an Air Test sortie on MiG 29 aircraft which involved testing of aircraft at Supersonic Speeds at a height of 10 Km. While conducting this test in Supersonic Flying corridor; 110 km away from base at a speed of 1.1 Mach which corresponds to 1200-1300 Kmph of true air speed, the canopy perspex of the aircraft shattered. This resulted in explosive decompression and perspex pieces hitting the officer on his right shoulder. In the absence of canopy; he was exposed to extremely low temperatures of minus 28 deg C and very severe wind blast owing to very high speed. Human exposure to such low temperatures, aero-medical problems of decompression sickness and few seconds to useful consciousness due to Hypoxia required prompt actions on the part of the pilot. Weighing against the option of ejecting and displaying courage of an exceptional order, Sqn Ldr Sharma decided to recover the aircraft.
In the process, he totally disregarded his critical shoulder injury and the discomfort posed by high speed, high altitude and low temperatures. To avoid the effects of aero-medical problems he quickly descended to 3 Km and simultaneously reduced speed for effective control of the aircraft. Displaying concern to other lives and national assets he avoided flying close to oil installations which were enroute and populated areas. Notwithstanding the reduced frontal visibility, very high cockpit noise level and heavy aircraft weight, he skillfully handled the damaged aircraft and executed a safe emergency landing, without any further damage to the aircraft. His actions in handling such a critical emergency, not only saved his own life and the aircraft, but also prevented possible catastrophic damage to en-route strategically important and vital petrochemical installations and populated areas."