Squadron Leader George Thomas VM M-in-D (1065/81)

Squadron leader George Thomas(17722) Flying pilot is posted to the MI 8 flight of the IAF contingent for the United Nations mission in Sierra Leone. He is the flight commander of the flight.

Op Khukri, a joint Army Airforce UN operation was conducted to extricate 22 UN peacekeepers, held hostage for more than 75 days by Revolutionary United front rebels in Kailahun. The Mi-8 helicopters were tasked to carry out special heli-borne operations in support of ground operations. These included insertion and extrication of troops into and from rebel stronghold. The helicopters were required to operate from unprepared sites and confined spaces under constant threat of enemy fire.  Sqn Leader George Thomas, a Veteran helicopter pilot, was undeterred. Despite being fired upon on a number of occasions, he led 24 missions into enemy territory, under extremely adverse weather condition, over most inhospitable and thickly forested terrain. Throughout the conduct of this operation, the officer flew all the sorties assigned to him, with courage, enthusiasm and utter disregard to personal safety.

On 8 June 2000, Squadron Leader Thomas was tasked to escort a UN convoy from Hastings to Rogberi , which was captured by rebels. His task included providing fire cover to the ground column. It involved flying the helicopter at extremely low altitudes  over treacherous and thickly forested terrain of Sierra Leone under constant threat of rebel fire. Realising the gravity of the situation, the pilot engaged the enemy while at the same time informing the advancing column of the impeding ambush.. The rebels fired  03 rockets at the helicopter.  With his exceptional flying skills, he successfully evaded the attacks. Undeterred, he held his position in the area and continued  to guide the ground force. This timely action thus prevented the ground force from suffering heavy casualties due to enemy ambush.

For this act of exceptional courage and professionalism, the honorable president is pleased to award Vayusena Medal (Gallantry) to Squadron leader George Thomas.

           Squadron Leader Kapil Kareem (3511/03)

Squadron Leader Kapil Kareem, Flying (Pilot) is on the posted strength of a Mirage Squadron. He is a fully operational 4-aircraft leader on Mirage 2000 aircraft and has 691 hours of service flying. 

He was authorised to lead a 2 Vs 2 combat mission on 06 May 2014. The sortie was uneventful till the second combat situation. Towards the end of the second combat situation, on commencing a right turn at 11500’ at speed of 480 knots, the aircraft went into severe oscillations in pitch. The pitch of the aircraft varied rapidly from +15 to -25. The rapid oscillations exposed the pilot to large positive and negative g loads in a very short time.

During oscillations, a maximum of +7.69 g and -6.13g were recorded (the normal human tolerance is barely -3.5g). The high rapid onset and varying g forces jolted the pilot inside the cockpit banging his head against the sight camera and canopy. The violent jolting severely sprained the pilot’s neck and he nearly became incapacitated. He could not move his neck to glance at the warning panel on the right side. He maintained calm and displaying courage of the highest order, skillfully controlled the aircraft by throttling back and selecting air brakes out. Subsequently, the oscillations stopped abruptly. He called off the combat and handed over the lead of the formation to the attacker leader. Unperturbed by his incapacitation, he maintained good situational awareness and commenced recovery. Despite being unable to straighten his neck and the resultant limitation to the vision in front, he landed the aircraft safely. 

The response of the aircraft during the event was abnormal and recovery method from such situations demanded very high skill level on the part of the pilot. SqnLdr Kareem during the event was subjected to high g load factors and stress which is beyond the human tolerance levels. He, despite being nearly incapacitated, went beyond the call of the duty to stay with the aircraft and recover it safely, thereby displaying courage of the highest order. 

For this act of exceptional courage in ensuring safe recovery of aircraft SqnLdrKapil Kareem has been awarded with Vayusena Medal (Gallantry).

      Squadron Leader  Philips Jacob VM (G) (R No 654/75)

At 22:30 hours on 4 June 96, an SOS was received from INS Valsura. A rescue boat, a sailing boat with seven sailors was missing since 1830 hours and was believed to have been swept away by the receding tide into the Gulf of Kachchh. More critically, one of the occupants who attempted to reach the shore was believed to be stuck in the marsh. The new rising tide would drown this officer and therefore prompt reaction was critical to the success of the mission.

On being detailed, Squadron leader Philips Jacob was airborne within an hour. In addition to the regular complement of aircrew, using is ingenuity; he carried two more technicians and improvised equipment, which may have been required to recover the officer from the marsh. The weather conditions were not favourable for SAR mission of this sort at night. The winds were in excess of 40 kmph and blowing into the just rising moon, which affected the minimum speed for search and visibility. Also due to the sea spray the search had to be done at 20-25 metres for landing lights to be effective.

After having reasonable ascertainment of the absence of officer in the marsh, search was shifted towards the water line and the sea. After search of over an hour, the drifted boat was located with 6 survivors on board and a Motorola set was handed over to the survivors from a low-hover. Contact could not be established even on this set with the boat. Now, it becomes imperative to wind up one of the survivors to ascertain the whereabouts and well being of the rest of the crew. Therefore, one the survivours was winched up into the helicopter with whose help the rest of the survivours were later recovered.

In flying this highly demanding mission in unfamiliarly conditions over the sea at midnight, compounded by extremely strong winds and poor visibility, Squadron leader Philips Jacob has exhibited as strong sense of commitment and responsibility above and beyond the call of duty. Further an exceptional display of skill and professionalism,  resulted in the safe and successful conduct of the mission in turn fostering a tremendous spirit of inter service cooperation.