The Funeral of Indian Air Force Wing Commander Hanumanth Rao Sarathi will be held in Belagavi in Karnataka on Sunday. He was killed in an air crash in Madhya Pradesh's Morena on Saturday. He was an ace Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft pilot and instructor at the Indian Air Force Tactics And Air Combat Development Establishment (TACDE) in Gwalior.
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The body of Wing Commander Hanumanth Rao Sarathi reached Belagavi on Sunday afternoon, a day after he was killed in a plane crash between Sukhoi-30MKI and Mirage-2000 aircraft. The two frontline combat aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed during a training mission in Madhya Pradesh's Morena district, resulting in the death of Wing Commander Sarathi while two other pilots ejected safely.
Wing Commander Sarathi's body was flown in by a special IAF plane and it was later taken to his home at Ganeshpur in Belagavi.
A pall of gloom has descended at the residence of Wing Commander Sarathi, an instructor at Tactics and Air Combat Development Establishment (TAC-DE) in Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior.
The family members and relatives were inconsolable with his untimely demise. The 35-year-old pilot is survived by his wife, a three-year-old daughter and a one-year-old son.
The IAF officer comes from a defence background. Sarathi's father Revansiddappa Sarathi is a retired honorary captain and his brother Praveen Sarathi is a serving Group Captain.
(With agencies inputs)