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IAF Pilot Achieves Major Milestone: Executes 1,000 Incident-Free IL-76 Landings At Leh, Thoise Airfields

Swarajya StaffMay 02, 2019, 12:07 PM | Updated 12:06 PM IST
Group Captain Sandeep Singh Chhabra. (@IAF_MCC/Twitter)

Group Captain Sandeep Singh Chhabra. (@IAF_MCC/Twitter)


An Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot, Group Captain Sandeep Singh Chhabra has achieved a rare feat of completing 1,000 incident-free landings of the Russian-origin heavy lift aircraft IL-76 at the Leh and Thoise airfields, reports Tribune India.

Commissioned into the transport wing of the IAF on 13 June 1992 and after flying AN-32 aircraft and IL-78 mid air refuellers for long period of his career, Group Captain Chhabra finally accomplished this feat with IL-76 aircraft on 30 April 2019. The celebrated pilot also holds over 8,500 hours of service flying experience of which over 5,000 hours are on the IL-76/78 platform.


Group Captain Chhabra happens to be one of the only few who hold clearance to fly to both these airfields by night, which by any standard is a tough and dangerous job.

The IAF's squadron number 44 operates all the IL-76 aircrafts in possession of the Indian forces, and is based at Chandigarh Air Force Station. These planes are capable of carrying payloads of as much as 45 tonnes.

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