"Fear of the Starfighter"

The painting depicts S/L Brij Pal Singh Sikand re-entering Pakistani airspace in sheer panic.
On 3rd Sep 1965, a flight of 6 Gnats challenged 2 F-86s for a dogfight which had a cover of a fearsome F-104. F/L Yusuf received hits from Gnat flown by F/L Trevor Keelor while he was about to fire a missile at one of the Gnat. He managed to continue dogfighting with a damaged Sabre. F-104 of PAF’s 9 flown by F/O Abbas Mirza, made supersonic runs to support F-86s. On seeing F-104, SL Singh shouted in Punjabi “Pajh oye…. 104 eeee” All gnats disengaged but Singh behaved strangely. He broke off towards Pakistan then turned towards India then turned back and re entered Pakistan airspace thinking it as India. He landed at Pasrur airfield and was our “guest” (POW) till the war ended. He claimed that he encountered problems relating to navigation, jammed guns etc. S/L Sa’ad Hatmi flew this Gnat to Sargodha, carried out evaluation flights and found the aircraft fit to fly and fight!!!! The aircraft is now on display at PAF Museum Karachi.