Fg Off Man Mohan Singh

Fg Offr Man Mohan Singh hailed from the state of Punjab and was born on 08 Jan 1944. He was commissioned into the Indian Air Force on 04 Jun 1967 at the age of 23 years. He was commissioned in the fighter stream of the IAF and got trained as a fighter pilot as part of 97th Pilots' course. After completing his flying training, he served with various flying squadrons located at different Air Force bases. By 1971, Fg Offr Man Mohan Singh had put in about 4 years of service and evolved into a professionally competent fighter pilot having experience in various air operations.

Air Operation (Indo-Pak War) : 07 Dec 1971

During 1971, Fg Offr Man Mohan Singh was serving with 9 Sqn, known as "Wolfpack". The Squadron was formed at Lahore on 3 January 1944 under the command of Squadron Leader A W Ridler of the Royal air Force. Initially the Squadron operated Harvard, Tempest and Spitfire aircraft but was later armed with the Gnats. In 1964, it moved to Ambala with Wing Commander Reginald John Manual Upot as its commanding officer and and also took part in the1965 war with Pakistan. As war broke out with Pakistan on the 3rd of December, 1971, the Squadron with Wing Commander Karan Yadav as its commanding officer was tasked for various offensive air missions. During the 1971 war a part of the Squadron moved to Amritsar to take part in combat air operations. As part of ongoing operations Fg Offr Man Mohan Singh was detailed to ferry one aircraft from Amritsar to Halwara on 07 Dec 1971.

On 7 December 1971, Fg Offr Man Mohan Singh in his Gnat ( IE-1075) took off as planned for the mission from Amritsar. However the aircraft developed some technical glitch and crashed. Unfortunately the time available to take emergency measures was too short and hence Fg Offr Man Mohan Singh did not get adequate time to eject.  Eventually the aircraft crashed and Fg Offr Man Mohan Singh went down with the aircraft and was martyred. Fg Offr Man Mohan Singh was a valiant soldier and committed air warrior, who laid down his life at the age of 27 years in the line of his duty.