IAF veteran’s 26,320 flying hours and ‘earth-shattering’ tales

“If given a second chance,I will still join the Air Force,” says Nath spontaneously when asked about his decision to join the Air Force. He had served for almost four decades in the Air Force and retired in 1996 as Wing Commander.

He is settled with his wife,Susan,in Mohali. After beginning his flying career with a DC-3 aircraft in the year 1967,he has flown several planes including IL-76,AN-12,Cessna Citation Jet,Beach Crafts and his favourite,Gulfstream 550 (popularly known as G550),a completely automated business jet.

A lot of his vast array of experiences have been incorporated as norms and parameters for flying and taught to budding pilots and even professionals.

Four years ago,he was flying from Bangkok to Delhi with Rajshree Birla and seven others on board when a shocking incident took place. “Flying G550 at a height of more than 40,000 feet,I heard a sudden thud. What I saw was something unbelievable. Both the windshields of the aircraft were smashed,but intact,as if somebody beat them with a baseball bat. To maintain a speed and altitude to prevent the glass from caving in or the aircraft pressure to blow the glass out was an immense challenge,” said Nath. He was successful in making an emergency landing at Agra with the shattered glass intact. “As soon as the aircraft landed,the entire glass gave in as soon as the aircraft engineer laid a finger to it. Till date I am asked why I maintained that particular speed and altitude. The only answer I have is that I do not know,” he said.

Even today,what hit the aircraft at that high altitude is not known.

He is an expert at landing at short airfields. Among commercial aircraft,the shortest airfield on which he landed his G550 was 2,700 feet and that for the IL-76 was a 5,200 feet airstrip in Dum Duma.

He is associated with a Dalhousie-based NGO and is working for Himachal tribes and also for the environmental cause.