Daring woman copter pilot saves wounded commando

NAGPUR: Captain Reena Varughese was a rookie pilot in 2009 when Maoists shot down a helicopter ferrying senior police and polling officials in Laheri on the fringes of Abujmarh, the 'People's Liberation Guerrilla Army' (PLGA) headquarters straddling Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.

Fifteen years later, Varughese knew what she was getting into when her 13-seater Dauphin-N Pawan Hans chopper took off from Gadchiroli and flew into the Maoist heartland, 100km away.

Varughese and her crew's daredevil act of risking a mortar hit to rescue a wounded C-60 commando in the middle of Monday's eight-hour siege of the booby-trapped PLGA den was the defining moment of the operation in which five Maoists being killed.

Chopper pilot had experience in rescue operations in high-risk zones

Sources said Varughese, who prefers being in the shadows, knew it was impossible to land on the rocky, forested terrain. Putting her co-pilot in charge, she jumped off the chopper as it hovered 11ft above the ground amid swirling dust.

The chopper was a sitting duck for the Maoists, who are known to possess a fleet of unmanned drones to counter airborne raids. But Varughese and the crew pulled off what seemed impossible, lifting to safety the wounded C-60 commando who lay bleeding for three hours after taking three bullets.

“Drawing from her experience in rescue and evacuation in high-risk zones, including Maoist-hit areas of Jagdalpur, Sukma and Chintagufa in Chhattisgarh, Varughese demonstrated uncanny ability in taking up the challenge head-on,” a source said. The wounded commando was flown to Gadchiroli within 30 minutes, from where he was taken to a Nagpur hospital, where his condition was reported to be stable till Tuesday evening. Varughese, who completed her BTech in aeronautical engineering before training to be a pilot, was part of the Pawan Hans operation to evacuate Covid patients from Lakshadweep Islands to Kochi during the pandemic.