Jammu, July 30 (KNS): Thousands of people, including IAF personnel, paid their last respects to flight lieutenant Advitiya Bal, who died in a MiG-21 trainee aircraft crash in Rajasthan's Barmer.
An army official told Kashmir news service (KNS), that the deceased pilot's body arrived in a service aircraft at Airforce station in Jammu today morning. In a ceremony at the IAF station, Air officer Commanding (AoC) Air Commodore GS Bhullar paid tributes to Bal, who made supreme sacrifice in Rajasthan in service of the motherland.
"Carried in a kilometre-long cavalcade of private vehicles and tricolour-donned motorcyclists, the IAF cortege took to the road from Jammu IAF station and arrived at the martyr's home amid chanting of Advitiya Amar Rahay," he said.
Meanwhile, people gathered outside the pilot's home at Jinder Mehlu, a village on the India-Pakistan border since morning waiting for the coffin to arrive and bid him a last goodbye, as soon as his body arrived, there was mourning in the village . His family members broke down, at the sight of the coffin.
The fighter jet crashed in Rajasthan's Barmer district on Thursday. The debris of the aircraft was found scattered on a half-kilometer stretch in Bhimda village in Barmer.
The two pilots who were inside the aircraft died after sustaining fatal injuries from the crash. Lt Advitiya Bal and Wing Commander M Rana were conducting a sortie over the Baytu region when the crash happened.
The exact reason for the crash is not known yet and the Indian Air Force ordered a court of inquiry to ascertain the cause of the accident.
Expressing his regret over the incident, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha has reached out to Twitter to pay his condolences to the bereaved.
“Flight Lieutenant Advitiya Bal was a budding fighter pilot from Jammu. In this moment of grief, my thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved families,” Sinha said(KNS).