By IANS,
New Delhi : Known as “flyboy” to his friends, 26-year-old Flt Lt Manu Akhouri of the Indian Air Force (IAF), killed in a MiG-21 crash Thursday, was a second generation officer in the Indian armed forces.
His father is a serving officer in the Indian Army.
On Thursday, Akhouri took off from Bhisiana air base in Bathinda for a routine training sortie but lost contact with the Air Traffic Controller after being in air for nearly an hour.
The wreckage of his aircraft was spotted about 10 km from the airbase.
“He was one of the most professional pilots among us,” said one of his fellow pilots.
“He was a very jovial person, always making others laugh,” remembered another.
Akhouri was commissioned into the IAF in 2006.
He was among the pilots who went to Britain for training on the Advanced Jet Trainer Hawks. After training on the aircraft, he was posted to the Golden Arrows, Squadron 17 of Bathinda, to fly MiG-21s.
As soon as the news of his death in the crash came out, his Orkut profile was flooded with condolence messages of his friends.
The crash was eighth for the IAF this year and second for MiG-21s. The MiG-21s have a poor flight safety record in the IAF with 15 MiG-21s crashing in the past four years leaving seven pilots dead.