British F-35's recovery puts spotlight on daring ferry of stranded IAF Mirage from Mauritius
Incidentally, it also landed in Thiruvananthapuram.
The little known mission to bring back the plane will go down in India's aviation history as one of the most celebrated demonstrations of piloting skills, courage and technical ingenuity of IAF engineers who made the aircraft airworthy in a short time after it had suffered extensive damage because of a belly landing in Mauritius.
It also put the spotlight on the grit and planning skill of the pilot, Sqn Ldr Jaspreet Singh, who braved dangerous weather and conducted three mid-air refuellings to bring back the repaired Mirage.
He flew non-stop for five hours and 10 minutes on October 26, 2004 over the desolate Indian Ocean, where any malfunction en route would have meant almost certain disaster.
"I remember that day as clearly as if it was yesterday," Jaspreet, who took retirement from the IAF in 2018, told PTI.
"I was confident of undertaking this risky flight across the ocean as I had full faith in the team of exceptional technical personnel who had worked non-stop over two weeks to repair the aircraft," he said.
"Military aviation is all about taking calculated risks when the mission demands, preparing for all possible contingencies and having your backup plans in place," he said.
The French-built Mirage-2000 had crash-landed on October 4 at the Sir Seewoosagur-Ramgoolam International Airport in Port Louis after taking part in an air show.
The belly landing had damaged the aircraft extensively, especially the underbelly auxiliary fuel tanks, the airframe, avionics and cockpit instrumentation.
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