By IANS
New Delhi : The unwitting shooting of a US aircraft parked at Chaklala air base in Pakistan, hours after the India-Pakistan conflict began in 1971, may have prompted the Nixon administration to send a naval task force to the Bay of Bengal, says the pilot who flew the mission.
Former Indian Navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash, who flew a Hunter while on deputation with the Indian Air Force in the wee hours of Dec 4, 1971, destroyed a number of light aircraft parked at the base.
One belonged to the United Nations, another was a twin-engine Beechcraft supplied by Pentagon to its military advisor, Brigadier General Charles “Chuck” Yeager, the legendary US Air Force pilot who was the first man to fly above the speed of sound and who later inspired a book by Tom Wolfe – “The Right Stuff”.
An angry Yeager sent a “top priority” message to the Pentagon, and himself moved to Peshawar to direct the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) operations against India as the two-week war that led to the liberation of Bangladesh raged, according to American diplomat Edward C. Ingraham.