Umesh Kumar Baveja was the only son of Maj HR Baveja. He joined the NDA from Military School, Chail, which lies in between Kasauli and Shimla. Battish visited his school in 1985- Baveja's School Teacher was all praises for him and told him that Umesh was one of the brightest boys in his batch. He excelled in PT during the NDA days and was the Cross-Country Captain of Juliet Squadron. He had topped the jungle survival course and attended DSSC–45.

Umesh stayed a happy man all along . He was in 108 Sqn in MiG-21s and then posted to 27 Sqn on the Jaguars. Rajiv Battish was also posted to his squadron in Jul 1991. For four days after Battish's arrival at Gorakhpur, he could only speak to Umesh but not meet him or spend any time as Baveja was very busy flying in a Command Level Air Exercise. Air Mshl Dushyant Singh was the SASO of CAC conducting this mammoth near wartime scenario.

It was a dark night 19-20 Jul 1991. Monsoon was playing havoc - such weather meant lightning, thunder, rain, and clouds. Umesh was doing a night strike profile on his DPSA Jaguar. Somewhere between Gorakhpur and Bareilly, he encountered severe weather. All aircraft were returning to base. Having negotiated the worst part, he once again ran into bad weather conditions - rain, but this time he got disoriented. He crashed and moved on that fateful night.

He is survived by his lady wife Asha (who has probably remarried) and his daughter Juhi. Details not known. A nice guy, ever-smiling, gone in an air accident, and the family scattered. That is the irony of life. RIP my dear UK Baveja.

🙏May his soul rest in peace🙏