The time was 0530 hours. Daylight has not yet broken out, when Wg Cdr Ajit Bhavnani received an important message. Bhavnani was the Commanding officer of the No.7 Squadron 'The Battle Axes'.
The message he received was a directive to immediately move some of his aircraft to the south of the country.
The destination was the HAL Airport in Bangalore. A giant Illyushin 76 was allocated to him to move supporting personnel and equipment to Bangalore airport.
At the same time, under the supervision of the then Vice-Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal S. Raghavendran, five An-32s were loaded with the relief supplies and took off for Bangalore at 0800 hours.
These were to fly out—led by Gp. Capt. B.K. Sunder, CO of Paratroop Training School—after dawn and carry out the supply drop under the cover of the Mirages, which were led by Wg. Cdr. Ajit Bhavnani.
