IAF chopper crash: Wing Commander Prithvi Singh was planning to visit parents in January

LUCKNOW: The wait will now be never-ending for the grief-stricken family of Wing Commander Prithvi Singh Chauhan, the pilot of the IAF helicopter which crashed on Wednesday claiming 13 lives including Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat.

The Wing Commander was supposed to come home to his old parents living at Sarannagar of Dayalbagh locality of Agra, in January, his father Surendra Singh, 74, said on Thursday. Singh, engaged in the bakery business, had spoken to his son Prithvi, 42, the youngest among five siblings, a few days ago regarding an appointment in the military hospital for Prithvi's mother who was having some eye problem. “He was a caring son”, remembers the father.

The family got the news of the chopper crash through news channels when his eldest sister Shakuntala, based in Mumbai, saw the news on television and called up Prithvi immediately only to find his mobile phone switched off. Shakuntala then called up Prithvi’s wife Kamini who confirmed the tragic news.

At present, Wing Commander Prithvi Singh Chauhan was posted at the Air Force station near Coimbatore. On getting the news of his chopper crash, neighbours and relatives started pouring in at his residence in Agra on Wednesday.

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“Prithvi was my only son among five children. Rest four are my daughters with the eldest being Shakuntala followed by Meena, Geeta, and Neeta,” said father Surendra while trying to console Prithvi’s mother Sushil Devi who has been asking for her son while weeping inconsolably since Wednesday. 

As per the family sources, Wing Commander Singh’s family was originally based in Madhya Pradesh and he had taken admission in Class VI at Rewa Sainik School. Later he cracked the NDA exam and got inducted into India Air Force at Hyderabad in 2000. In 2006, the family moved to Agra where Prithvi's father started the bakery business. In 2007, Prithvi married Kamini who belongs to Vrindavan in Mathura and the couple has a daughter Aradhya (12) and a son Aviraj (7).

Recalling his last visit to the family on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan after a long time, the father of the IAF officer said that Prithvi had promised to come in January. “He had come after a long time. While going back he had promised us to come again in January but now this wait has become endless as he has gone too far to never come back,” says the distraught father while trying to hold his tears back unsuccessfully.

Wing Commander Prithvi Singh was a gifted pilot who had served at Gorakhpur, Guwahati, Udham Singh Nagar, Jamnagar, Andaman and Nicobar Air Force stations. He was sent to Sudan for special training in flying for a year, said the sources.