MWO A K Singh

Master Warrant Officer A K Singh hailed from Mubarakpur village in Marhaura subdivision of Saran district in Bihar. He was enrolled into the Indian Airforce in July 1984 and worked in various Air Force bases operating diverse aircraft and other associated systems during his service of over three decades. MWO A K Singh also got trained as a flight gunner and operated in that role for many years.

 

 

Air Maintenance Operation: 06 Oct 2017

 

During October 2017, MWO A K Singh was serving with 157 HU AF unit , equipped with Mi-17 V5 Helicopter and was based at  Air Force Station Barrackpore in West Bengal.  At that time a number of Indian army units were deployed at many far-flung areas in the northeast sector where no motorable roads existed. The most of the supplies to these units were dependent on airdrops, undertaken by Indian Air Force as Air Maintenance operations. MWO A K Singh was tasked for one such air maintenance mission as flight gunner of the aircraft on 6th October 2017.  MWO A K Singh had with him, Wg Cdr Vikas Upadhyay and Squadron Leader Shishir Tewari as pilots, Sergeant Satish Kumar as flight gunner and Sergeant Gautam Kumar as the flight engineer. Besides the aircrew two Army personnel, Sepoy H N Deka and Sepoy E Balaji were also detailed to be part of the air maintenance mission.

Wg Cdr Vikas Upadhyay and Sqn Ldr  Shishir Tewari along with MWO A K Singh and two other air crew in their Mi-17 V5 helicopter took off from Khirmu helipad in Tawang district on 06 Oct 2017.  The flight path of the sortie was vulnerable to dangerous weather changes, but Wg Cdr Vikas Upadhyay and Sqn Ldr  Shishir Tewari were experienced pilots and had handled many such situations earlier.  As the aircraft was on Air maintenance sortie, it was carrying supplies to the forward posts in Topokhar near the Yangste area. This was the second air maintenance sortie of the day for the aircraft in that forward area.  At around 6 AM , as the supplies were being dropped in the dropping zone about 120 kms north of Tawang, the net holding the jerry cans of kerosene being offloaded got entangled in the aircraft’s rear rotor. As a result, the chopper caught fire instantly and crashed, giving no chance to the pilots to take any action. MWO A K Singh and all other 6 on-board military personnel including Wg Cdr Vikas Upadhyay, Sqn Ldr Shishir Tewari, Sgt Satish Kumar, Sgt Gautam Kumar, Sep H N Deka and Sep E Balaji, could not survive the crash

 

Master Warrant Officer A K Singh was a committed soldier and professionally competent air warrior, who laid down his life in the service of the nation. MWO A K Singh is survived by his wife Smt Meena Devi, sons Anoop and Anuj and daughter Anupama.