IAF hero Prashant Bundela goes down fighting

‘‘That he managed to survive this long was rare. But in the end, he couldn’t make it despite the best treatment,’’ Major General T Rai, Commandant at the hospital, said. Bundela’s wife, Meera, had been camping at the hospital ever since the accident along with their three-year-old daughter, Prachi, and his mother, Laxmibai. ‘‘She seemed mentally prepared. Prashant was deteriorating and had developed infection,’’ said neurosurgeon Col A K Dubey.

Bundela, from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan, graduated from the National Defence Academy in 1991. A fighter pilot with over 1,200 hours of flying experience, he won the Vayu Sena Medal for gallantry on Air Force Day Parade 2000.

‘‘The Atlantique was signalled to land. Instead of lowering its under carriage, the aircraft turned in to my wingman’s aircraft,’’ Bundela had then told The Indian Express during an interview at the Naliya air base in August 1999.

‘‘It was a very aggressive gesture. I flipped the switch and pressed the red button.’’

On April 4 this year, Bundela’s aircraft developed a technical snag during an exercise in the Rajasthan desert. ‘‘He reported a flame out and could have bailed out. But he tried to re-ignite the engine and save the aircraft,’’ a senior IAF official said. Doctors at the Command Hospital in Pune were momentarily encouraged on June 13 when Bundela moved his right toe for the first time since the accident. But the recovery was brief and after that, he was ‘‘constantly sinking.’’