Pleasure to fly with Abhinandan: IAF chief after doing MiG-21 sortie together

 Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa and Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman on Monday flew a sortie in a MiG-21 fighter aircraft from the Pathankot Airbase.

Vir Chakra awardee Varthaman who shot down a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet post-Balakot operations had resumed flying operations on August 23. The officer has started flying after medical clearance. During Pakistani counter-attack on India on February 27 in response to Balakot airstrikes, Abhinandan had flown a MiG 21 Bison fighter into Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).

#WATCH IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa flew a sortie with Wg Cdr Abhinandan Varthaman at Air Force Station Pathankot today in a MiG-21 trainer. It's the last sortie flown by IAF Chief in a fighter aircraft before retirement.They took off around 1130 hrs for a 30 min sortie. pic.twitter.com/retSoI3EVl

— ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2019

IAF chief Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa: It was a pleasure for me to fly with Abhinandan because he has got his flying category back, that is what all pilots look forward to. I also ejected in 1988, it took me 9 months to get my category back. He has been back in less than 6 months pic.twitter.com/OpOUOHzxKm

— ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2019

Abhinandan had been grounded due to ejection from his MiG-21 which had been shot down in aerial conflict with Pakistan Air Force F-16s. Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief, Dhanoa is also a MiG-21 pilot and had flown the planes during the 1999 Kargil war while commanding the 17 Squadron, during the war.