Pushpendra Badsara

Biography

Flight Lieutenant Pushpendra Badsara hailed from Hisar district in Haryana. He completed his schooling at various institutions, including Kendriya Vidyalaya in Hyderabad for Classes IX to XII. A keen swimmer from the age of twelve, he won several state-level competitions and would spend hours in the pool relaxing after a demanding day at school. After completing his education, he was selected for the flying branch of the Indian Air Force and joined the Air Force Academy at Dundigal, where he trained as a transport pilot with the 188th Pilots' Course. He passed out and was commissioned as a Flying Officer on 29 December 2011. Trained on various transport aircraft of the IAF, he was posted to the Air Force base at Sulur in 2013, serving with 33 Squadron, which operated the sturdy AN-32 aircraft — the IAF's workhorses for ferrying troops and cargo to forward areas since 1984. Over nearly three years he gained considerable experience on the AN-32 and matured into a competent and accomplished pilot. On 22 July 2016, Flt Lt Badsara was tasked to captain an AN-32 (K-2743) carrying men and material from Chennai to the Air Force station at Port Blair, alongside co-pilot Fg Offr Pankaj Kumar Nandal and navigator Flt Lt Kunal Barpatte. The aircraft took off from Tambaram Air Force Station at 8.30 am with 29 people on board. At 9.12 am, about 151 nautical miles east of Chennai, it lost contact with ground radar and vanished over the Bay of Bengal. Despite India's largest-ever maritime search operation involving the Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard, the aircraft could not be traced, and on 15 September 2016 all 29 aboard were presumed dead. In January 2024, the wreckage was finally located at a depth of 3,400 metres. Flt Lt Pushpendra Badsara was lost in the line of duty, a dedicated and professionally competent air warrior.