Bolt from the blue: The dead and the lucky

Lieutenant Generals Daulat Singh and Bikram Singh, and Air Vice-Marshal Erlic Pinto

Nov. 22, 1963, in Poonch district

Totally six personnel were killed when an IAF Aérospatiale Alouette III chopper crashed after colliding with telegraph
cables.

Balwantrai Mehta, Gujarat chief minister

Sept. 19, 1965, south of Bhuj

Mehta’s Beechcraft Model 18, a civilian aircraft flying from Ahmedabad to
Mithapur, was shot down by the Pakistani air force during wartime after it was misidentified as a
reconnaissance flight.