Yet again, a young Indian Air Force fighter pilot Squadron Leader Abhinav Choudhary lost his life in a MiG-21 crash in Punjab on 20th May 2021 late at night. The young pilot was on a routine sortie and returning to the base when his aircraft developed a technical snag and crashed near Moga, Punjab. Here we are publishing some details about brave Sqn Ldr Abhinav Choudhary that will motivate other defence aspirants.
1. Squadron Leader Abhinav Choudhary received his education in a Meerut school till class 7 and completed his further schooling in RIMC Dehradun thereafter he joined the National Defence Academy in 2010 and later completed his training at Air Force Academy. He was posted at the Pathankot base from 2014 onwards.
2. Squadron Leader Abhinav Choudhary was married to Sonika Ujjwal on 25th December 2019 (17 months back). The young pilot refused to take dowry during his marriage and has given a positive message to society. His family also returned the money gifted by the girl’s family during the events of marriage. His father Satendra Choudhary accepted only one rupee as a shagun for the wedding ceremony. Abhinav stood against this evil practice in society and said that the dowry system must be banned and money cannot tie the two families into a relationship.
3. Squadron Leader Abhinav Choudhary (28), who hailed from Baghpat-Meerut and had got married just over a year ago, had taken off in his MiG-21 ‘Bison’ from the Suratgarh airbase in Rajasthan for a “routine” night combat training sortie.
4. “His body was found 2 km away from the crash spot after an intense search of nearly four hours. His parachute was found open and an SOS was also sent from his device to IAF, but he had died by then. He tried to land safely using the parachute, but apparently broke his neck and spinal cord.” It was an unfortunate incident as we could not save the pilot but the jet crashed in open fields and there was no other loss of life.
5. “This piece of clothing belongs to my son. I will wear this because this is all that remains. I lost my lion son. Everything is over, destroyed,” said Satyendra Chaudhary, father of Indian Air Force pilot Abhinav Chaudhary
Hope the inspiring journey of the brave pilot will inspire millions of defence aspirants to join the Indian Air Force.
