The Rowriah Indian Air Base in Jorhat, Assam, witnessed a tragedy on Saturday morning. At exactly 10 am, as an Indian Air Force aircraft was coming in to land, it crashed during the landing itself. The accident claimed the lives of five personnel, including the pilot. Two of those killed had roots in Bihar — Danish Alam of Bhojpur and Shubham Kumar of Jahanabad.
Shubham of Jahanabad: 26 years old, joined the IAF in 2021
Shubham Kumar belonged to Banwaria village in the Hulasganj police station area of Jahanabad. Just 26 years old, he had joined the Air Force in 2021 as a Flight Lieutenant. The grim news did not reach his family directly but through a series of anxious moments. His brother Satyam recalls that at first nobody could believe it — everyone assumed the report was false. It was only after the family repeatedly tried reaching Shubham on his mobile number that the reality of the crash sank in.
The family had spoken to him just two hours earlier
What makes the shock even deeper is that the family had been on a video call with Shubham barely two hours before the accident. In that final exchange, he had only said that he was in a hurry and would talk once he was free. That hurry turned out to be their last conversation. With the confirmation of his death, the condition of his mother and his father, Amarendra, has turned extremely fragile. The grief is all the harder to bear because his father had been busy preparing for Shubham's wedding this very year. A farmer by occupation, Shubham's father had endured great hardship and toil to make his son a soldier.
The five personnel who lost their lives
The five who made the supreme sacrifice in this crash were Flight Lieutenant Shubham Kumar, Squadron Leader Prashant Singh, Sergeant Jitendra Sharma, Agniveer Vayu Khemaram Kumawat and Danish Alam. The incident has once again revived the debate over exactly what is causing aircraft to crash during missions.
The AN-32: backbone of the IAF's transport fleet for four decades
A senior officer who served as an Air Marshal in the Indian Air Force sheds light on this aircraft's role. According to him, the AN-32 has been the backbone of the Indian Air Force's transport fleet for the past four decades. Since its induction in the mid-1980s, the aircraft has successfully carried out its missions across Ladakh, Northeast India, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and other parts of the country. In Jorhat too, the AN-32 has, to date, completed its various operations successfully.
