New Delhi: Squadron Leader Sudhir Kumar, a Su-30MKI pilot who saved his fighter from what could have been potentially a catastrophic crash after a multiple-system failure during a night-time sortie, has been awarded the Shaurya Chakra for his exceptional gallantry and airmanship.
Shaurya Chakra is India’s third highest peacetime gallantry award.
On 9 September, 2025, Squadron Leader Kumar—a supervisor with more than 1,300 hours of flying experience—was flying as captain of the Su-30MKI aircraft for a low-flying, low-level navigation sortie at night from the rear cockpit, accompanied by an under-training pilot in the front cockpit.
During the recovery phase, 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 a Fly By Wire (FBW) system failure. This resulted in drastic pitch variations ranging from +45 degrees to -15 degrees, extreme g-loads spanning from -1.5 g to +12 g, along with Angle of Attack (AOA) indications exceeding 24 units.
Despite experiencing physical forces that exceeded normative limits for human tolerance with extreme conditions of rapidly varying g-loads and pitch, Kumar swiftly took control of the situation and instructed the front pilot to reset the failed FBW channels. He exercised exemplary judgement by first corroborating that the critical FBW red light was not illuminated before guiding the front pilot to operate the correct switches, according to his citation.
“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 praiseworthy intuition by promptly re-opening power on the aircraft,” the citation read.
This prevented a potentially cataclysmic accident that could have occurred due to rapid loss of airspeed.
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 added.
Furthermore, he demonstrated outstanding leadership and supervisory acumen by guiding and reassuring the trainee pilot in the front cockpit.