Daily Times

For the first and only time in the world, four valiant B-57 Bomber pilots of the Pakistan Air Force broke all rules of the B-57 manufacturers and performed wonder aerobatics such as (wingtip to wingtip) loops, wingovers, tight turns etc, with this huge, heavy almost zero-maneuverability big bomber, baffling its American manufacturers and the British Canberra pilots.

An air display was carried out in honour of the President of Indonesia in 1964. Present were all world class high ranking military brass tags, ambassadors of different countries and the general public. The names of Wing Commander Nazir Latif (leader) Sqn Ldr Ataf Sheikh, Flt Lt SA Shams and Flt Lt Abdul Basit have been recorded in the Book of World Records.

To the spectators we made it look like a piece of cake. But behind this spectacular air display were hours and hours of intense and passionate training in the most difficult of conditions. Let me remind you that the controls were manual and not electronic or hydraulically boosted.

The spectators were unaware that we needed Samson’s strength, a sportsman’s mental concentration, dexterity, swiftness of a cheetah, and a daredevil’s courage and precision flying to do what we did. Leadership and exactitude shown by our leader Wing Commander Nazir Latif was beyond comparison. Full faith in our leader was essential and cooperation and trust among the other pilots was vital to be the world’s best. We undertook the challenge and we did the impossible.

Remember dear readers, just the slightest mistake, a split-second delay or erroneous decision specially by the leader or by any member of the team meant 4 funerals, everlasting lingering sadness and mourning not counting the hundreds of deaths of innocent spectators if we had crashed. I thank God Almighty that all went well for without His help nothing could have been achieved. Not only had we undertaken to perform the most tricky and difficult of formation flying but we had trained incessantly to do things splendidly.

And what more, we were so confident in our outcome that we performed the air-display right over the heads of the spectators; who watched with awe-struck admiration and jaw-dropping silence.

How did we do it? God plans risky manoeuvres to test us and the warriors of Pakistan Air Force are always first in the world to accept the challenge.

Published in Daily Times, September 20^th 2017.