New Delhi: Squadron Leader Sudhir Kumar, who displayed “super-human” qualities during a night sortie in a Su-30 MKI air-superiority fighter jet of the Indian Air Force (IAF) in 2025, was honoured with the Shaurya Chakra on Independence Day.
Despite the aircraft suffering a catastrophic systems failure, the fighter ace succeeded in landing it safely, thereby saving the life of a rookie pilot who was in the front cockpit.
On September 9, 2025, Sqn Ldr Kumar, while posted as a supervisor with a frontline fighter squadron, was authorised to fly as captain for a low-flying and low-level navigation sortie by night. He occupied the rear cockpit, as is the rule, when flying with a trainee.
Everything went off well during the sortie, but things started going wrong as the pilots prepared to land the multi-role, heavy, twin-engine fighter jet.
While at an altitude of 2.2 km and a speed of 740 kmph, the aircraft experienced a catastrophic failure that manifested as violent oscillations in the longitudinal plane accompanied by multiple indicators of the fly-by-wire (FBW) system failure. The FBW is a computer-based electronic interface between the pilot and the aircraft, transmitting command inputs to the aircraft’s control systems, as reported by The Tribune.
According to the IAF, this critical situation resulted in drastic pitch variations, that is the upward and downward movement of the aircraft’s nose, ranging from 45 degrees to minus 15 degrees, extreme g-loads spanning from minus 1.5-g to 12-g along with ‘angle of attack’ (AOA) indications exceeding 24 units.
While 5-g is experienced in standard maneuvers, 9-g is regarded as the outer envelope for aerial dogfights, fighter pilots said. At 9-g, a pilot’s body feels nine times its normal weight. Extreme g-levels can lead to loss of consciousness.
“As the supervisor in the cockpit, he demonstrated exceptional situational awareness and airmanship despite experiencing physical forces that exceeded normative limits for human tolerance,” the citation for his award stated.
He maintained a composed and calm demeanour under extreme conditions of rapidly varying g-loads and pitch, swiftly taking control of the situation and instructing the front pilot to reset the failed FBW channels.
Sqn Ldr Kumar exercised exemplary judgment by first corroborating that the critical FBW red light was not illuminated before guiding the front pilot to operate the correct switches. The ensuing task was extremely demanding given the violent onset of intense g-forces and the rapidity of the manoeuvre that manifested under conditions of total darkness by night.
Without any external frame of reference and unable to discern the aircraft instruments due to blurring of vision, he demonstrated extraordinary airmanship and intuition by promptly re-opening power on the aircraft. This prevented a potentially cataclysmic accident that could have occurred due to rapid loss of airspeed, the IAF said.
“Throughout the emergency he displayed absolute professionalism and composure, and maintained apt responsiveness despite being in extreme physical agony while struggling to stay conscious and remain oriented,” the citation states.
The experienced pilot also demonstrated outstanding leadership and supervisory acumen by guiding and reassuring the trainee pilot in the front cockpit.
