Flight Lt Purvesh: Nagpur Boy Who Kissed The Skies & Never Returned

Nagpur: Flight Lieutenant Purvesh Duragkar, one of the pilots killed in the Su-30 crash in Assam's Karbi Anglong district, hailed from Nagpur. He was commissioned in December 2022 and was on his first posting, said his family. His father is a retired railway employee, and the family lives in Subhedar Layout near Medical Square.Purvesh did his schooling from South Point School till 2015 and later went to Defence Services Academy in Bhandara for coaching to crack the National Defence Academy (NDA) examinations along with pursuing regular academics. "He was part of our first batch," said the academy's principal, Narendra Palandurkar.Palandurkar remembered him as a sincere student who often visited the academy to guide students on joining the armed forces. "Purvesh would always say he wanted to become a fighter pilot, and he indeed realised his dream," said Palandurkar.Although he did not pass the NDA exams, he later did a BSc degree at Ambedkar College here and again appeared for Air Force Common Admission Test (AFCAT) and was selected. Former Flight Lieutenant Shivale Deshpande of Prahar Samaj Jagruti Sanshta, where he went for training to appear in the Services Selection Board (SSB) interviews, recalled that Purvesh was a sincere student with a passion to join the armed forces. His mortal remains are expected to reach Nagpur on Saturday morning.