Lieutenant Commander S. K. Datta was an officer of the Indian Navy serving with Indian Naval Air Squadron 315.
The squadron was commissioned on 1 October 1977 and had completed 25 years of service by October 2002. Its silver jubilee was being marked at its home base in Goa with a ceremonial flypast.
On the morning of 1 October 2002, two Ilyushin-38 maritime reconnaissance aircraft of INAS 315 took part in the flypast near Dabolim.
The two aircraft were flying in close formation when they collided in mid-air. Both aircraft crashed in the vicinity of Dabolim.
Lieutenant Commander S. K. Datta was one of the six naval personnel aboard one of the aircraft. He made the supreme sacrifice in the accident along with the other 11 naval personnel aboard the two aircraft.
The accident resulted in the loss of both aircraft and became one of the most tragic incidents in the history of Indian naval aviation during peacetime.
The official parliamentary record later confirmed that 12 naval personnel, comprising the crews of the two aircraft, died in the collision.
Lieutenant Commander S. K. Datta's name is preserved among those naval personnel who made the supreme sacrifice on 1 October 2002.
