Bangladeshi trainee pilot flown back to his country

In a goodwill gesture, India has flown back a Bangladeshi Air Force (BAF) trainee pilot who had landed his trainer aircraft on India’s side of the border after it was trapped in bad weather on Wednesday evening.

In a goodwill gesture, India has flown back a Bangladeshi Air Force (BAF) trainee pilot who had landed his trainer aircraft on India’s side of the border after it was trapped in bad weather on Wednesday evening.

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Flight cadet Rasheed Sheikh of the BAF was flown back to Dhaka on Thursday evening from Kolkata in an AN-32 transport aircraft, squadron leader Priya Joshi, IAF spokesperson, said here.

Rasheed had taken off from Bangladesh Air Force Academy, based in Jessore, for a routine training sortie on a PT-6 trainer aircraft.

“The plane was caught in bad weather and the pilot had to forceland his plane on the Indian side in a paddy field in Murshidabad district’s Salar village,” officials said. He was picked up in an IAF chopper and taken for a preliminary medical check up at Kolkata’s Command Hospital.

The incident was reported first by Border Security Force (BSF) personnel, who saw the plane drifting towards the Indian side. They were also informed by their counterparts in the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).