Group Captain Abhinandan Varthaman Retires from IAF, Joins FLY91 as Commercial Pilot
Group Captain Abhinandan Varthaman, the Indian Air Force fighter pilot who became one of the most widely recognised faces of the 2019 India-Pakistan aerial confrontation, has moved into civil aviation after taking premature retirement from the IAF and joining Goa-based regional airline FLY91 as a commercial pilot.
Varthaman joined the airline in August and is currently undergoing the type training required before he can operate commercial flights. Once the training process and regulatory clearances are complete, he is expected to fly the ATR 72-600 turboprop aircraft on regional routes, including sectors such as Goa-Hyderabad.
FLY91 has confirmed that Varthaman is associated with the airline, but has declined to share further details. The company said information about individual employees is private and indicated that Varthaman himself does not wish to speak publicly in detail about his professional or personal journey.
The move brings him into a very different cockpit from the one that made him a household name more than seven years ago. On February 27, 2019, then Wing Commander Varthaman was flying a MiG-21 Bison from Srinagar when he was scrambled to intercept Pakistan Air Force aircraft after a retaliatory aerial operation across the Line of Control.
The sequence of events had begun a day earlier, on February 26, 2019, when the Indian Air Force carried out air strikes on a Jaish-e-Mohammed facility at Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Pakistan responded the next day with aerial activity across the LoC, leading to the engagement in which Varthaman took part.
According to his official Vir Chakra citation, Varthaman engaged the opposing formation despite being at a tactical disadvantage, pursued one of the retreating aircraft and shot down a Pakistan Air Force F-16 with an on-board missile. His own MiG-21 was hit during the encounter, forcing him to eject. He landed by parachute in Pakistan-administered territory, around seven kilometres from the Line of Control.
He was taken into Pakistani custody after landing and remained there until his release at the Attari-Wagah border on March 1, 2019. The episode drew intense attention in India, especially after videos of Varthaman in Pakistani custody circulated widely. His calm demeanour and his refusal to divulge sensitive military information beyond what a captured serviceman is permitted to disclose became defining features of the public reaction to the incident.
Pakistan has consistently disputed India’s claim that one of its F-16 fighters was shot down during the engagement. India has stood by its account, pointing to radar evidence and the version recorded in Varthaman’s gallantry award citation.
For his actions during the aerial engagement, Varthaman was awarded the Vir Chakra, India’s third-highest wartime gallantry decoration. After his return to India and a medical evaluation, he resumed flying duties with the Indian Air Force. Later in 2019, he also flew a MiG-21 sortie alongside then Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa.
He continued in service and was promoted to Group Captain in December 2021. By the time he left the Air Force, he had served for nearly 22 years as an IAF pilot.
Born on June 21, 1983, in Tamil Nadu, Varthaman comes from a family with strong ties to military aviation. His father, Air Marshal Simhakutty Varthaman, is a retired Indian Air Force officer. After graduating from the National Defence Academy, he was commissioned into the fighter stream on June 19, 2004.
During his career, he flew frontline fighter aircraft including the Sukhoi Su-30MKI before converting to the MiG-21 Bison. The aircraft he is now expected to fly in civil service represents a very different type of aviation experience. The MiG-21 Bison was a single-seat supersonic fighter built for interception and combat, requiring rapid decisions in a high-threat environment as part of India’s air-defence network. The ATR 72-600, by contrast, is a twin-engine turboprop regional passenger aircraft designed to connect cities over shorter distances and is commonly used on routes where larger jets are not commercially practical.
Instead of combat patrols and sudden operational scrambles, Varthaman will now be flying scheduled passenger services across India’s regional aviation network. FLY91 has also been expanding its ATR fleet as part of plans to improve connectivity between underserved regional airports.
His transition to commercial aviation is not unusual for experienced military aviators, many of whom spend the later stages of their careers in command, staff and administrative roles rather than continuous cockpit flying. For those who want to remain in the air, civil aviation often provides a way to continue flying after leaving military service.
Despite the extraordinary attention that followed the events of 2019, Varthaman has kept a low public profile and rarely spoken about the aerial engagement or his later career. His move to FLY91 now places him in a new role, but one that keeps aviation at the centre of his professional life.
