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MiG-21 farewell: Who is Squadron Leader Priya Sharma, the IAF pilot in the historic flypast?
Dilbagh Singh, IAF chief in 1981, led the first MiG-21 Squadron in 1963; the jets were hailed as “six decades of service, a national warhorse.”
After soaring the Indian skies for over six decades, the legendary MiG-21 is set to retire, with a grand farewell at Chandigarh, the very place where it first joined the Indian Air Force.
The official culmination of MiG-21 operations is scheduled for September 26 with a ceremonial flypast and decommissioning event, marking the closure of a historic chapter in India’s air power.
The last of the MiG-21 jets, belonging to number 23 Squadron, nicknamed “Panthers”, will be given a final farewell at the Chandigarh Air Force Station.
On Friday, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh will fly the last sortie of the Squadron with the call sign ‘Badal 3’.
Who is squadron leader Priya Sharma?
Squadron Leader Priya Sharma will be among the pilots taking part in the ceremonial MiG-21 flypast, having also flown in the full dress rehearsal on Wednesday.
The six jets of number 23 Squadron, set to feature in the farewell, will receive a water cannon salute upon landing, with Sharma playing a key role in this historic moment.
A 2018 graduate of the Air Force Academy, Dundigal, Sharma is the seventh woman fighter pilot in the Indian Air Force. She was commissioned as a Flying Officer after receiving her graduation certificate from then Army Chief Bipin Rawat, as reported by The Indian Express.
Hailing from Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu district, Sharma followed in her father’s footsteps to join the Air Force. An engineer by qualification, she was the only woman fighter pilot in her batch and initially served at Hakimpet Air Force Station in Hyderabad before moving to Bidar Air Force Station in Karnataka for Stage 2 and Stage 3 advanced fighter training.
Sharma says her passion for flying was inspired by her childhood days spent watching Jaguars and Hawk aircraft in the skies while her father was posted at Bidar. In August this year, she flew in formation during the IAF Chief’s MiG-21 farewell sorties at Nal Air Force Station in Bikaner, becoming part of a historic chapter in the legacy of India’s iconic fighter jet.
What’s planned for the grand farewell?
Dilbagh Singh, who became IAF chief in 1981, had led the first MiG-21 Squadron in Chandigarh in 1963. In a recent post on X about the retiring MiG-21s, the IAF said, “Six decades of service, countless tales of courage, a warhorse that carried pride of a nation into the skies”.
The ceremony on Friday will commence with the arrival of the chief guest, Rajnath Singh, followed by a spectacular display by the IAF's elite skydiving team ‘Akash Ganga’, who will jump from 8,000 feet.
This will be succeeded by a majestic flypast of the MiG-21 aircraft, accompanied by the precision of the air warrior drill team and an aerial salute.
Fighter pilots will fly in the three-aircraft ‘Badal’ formation and the four-aircraft ‘Panther’ formation, thundering over the skies one final time. The Surya Kiran aerobatic team will also showcase breathtaking maneuvers.
A commemorative postal stamp will be released on the occasion to mark the historic retirement of the jets, which played a key role in India’s 1965 and 1971 wars, the 1999 Kargil conflict, and the 2019 Balakot airstrikes.
With PTI inputs
