Group Captain Om Prakash Taneja Age, Death, Wife, Children, Family, Biography

Bio/Wiki
Nickname(s)	Omi, Wild Jack, OP
Profession	Retired Defence Personnel
Famous for	Leading the IAF squadron that raided the Sargodha Air Base of Pakistan in the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War
Physical Stats
Height (approx.)	5' 9" (175 cm)
Eye Colour	Dark Brown
Hair Colour	Salt and Pepper (Semi-bald)
Military Career
Service/Branch	Indian Air Force
Rank	Group Captain
Service Years	15 April 1950 - 31 August 1975
Stream	Flying (Fighter Pilot)
Service Number	3843 F(P)
Career Ranks	• Flying Officer (15 April 1951 - 15 April 1955) • Flight Lieutenant (15 April 1955 - 15 April 1961) • Squadron Leader (15 April 1961 - 1 April 1967) • Wing Commander (1 April 1967 - 1 April 1971) • Group Captain (1 April 1971 - 31 August 1975)
Military Decoration	Vir Chakra, India's third-highest war-time gallantry award (for his role in the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War) (1 January 1966)
Personal Life
Date of Birth	29 October 1928 (Monday)
Birthplace	Punjab Province, British India
Date of Death	22 July 2017
Place of Death	New Jersey
Age (at the time of death)	88 Years
Death Cause	Liver Cancer
Zodiac sign	Scorpio
Nationality	• British Indian (1928-1947) • Indian (1947-2017)
Hometown	New Delhi
College/University	Lahore Government College (now Government College University, Lahore)
Educational Qualification	Graduation in science
Religion	Hinduism
Hobby	Reading
Family
Wife/Spouse	Zohra (ex-wife) Note: He married twice.
Children	Son(s)- 2 • Rahil • Nikhil Daughter- 1 • Sanjana (lives in New Jersey)

Some Lesser Known Facts About Group Captain Om Prakash Taneja

• Om Prakash Taneja was named “Wild Jack” by his college mates in Lahore after he reportedly broke the boundary wall of the hostel where he used to live to meet the hostel’s warden, whom he did not like. A friend of his talked about it, in an interview, and said,
  

  Omi decided to break the boundary wall. It must have been a miracle, or a very weak wall, that it crumbled the moment he rammed it.”

• Om decided to join the Royal Indian Air Force after completing his formal education. He was motivated to join the Air Force after an Indian RAF pilot came to their college to give a speech about life in the services. However, he was not allowed to join the forces as his father feared that he might get killed in a war.

• Reportedly, Om’s father was a close friend of Jawaharlal Nehru, whom he tried to influence to prevent Om from joining the Air Force.

• Despite his family’s pressure, he decided to take part in the pilot’s selection process and passed it with good marks.

• He then attended the Royal Air Force College in Cranwell, the United Kingdom, where he was awarded for being one of the best students. He was part of the 51/52 course.

• In 1954, he was chosen to attend the fighter conversion course. He attended the course at Hakimpet.

• In 1958, he was one of the first IAF pilots chosen to attend the Air Force’s 1st Pilot Attack Instructors Flight course. He passed the course with flying colours.
  

  O. P. Taneja (seated in the middle) while he was undergoing Pilot Attack Instructors Flight course of the IAF

• He later survived an aircraft crash when his Hawker Tempest II crashed while on a training sortie.

• In April 1959, he was sent to Kalaikunda in West Bengal, where he served in the 3rd Squadron as a commanding officer till December 1961.
  

  O. P. Taneja’s photo taken shortly after he joined the 3rd Squadron

• On 1 December 1962, after becoming a Squadron Leader, he was posted to Adampur, Punjab, where he served in the 8th Squadron as a flight commander.

• As the war became imminent between India and Pakistan, he was deployed to the Adampur Air Force Base, where he took over the command of the 1st Squadron.
  

  A photo of O. P. Taneja with the pilots under his command in the 1st Squadron at Adampur

• On 30 November 1963, he was chosen to attend the 17th Defence Service Staff College course in Wellington and excelled.

• On 7 September 1965, his squadron, which included the Mahavir Chakra awardee Squadron Leader Ajjamada Boppayya Devayya, was tasked with launching an air raid at the strategically important Pakistani Air Force Bose in Sargodha.

• Taneja led his squadron in a Dassault Mystere IVA Ground Attack fighter jet and managed to destroy many Pakistani aircraft including the American-built Lockheed F-104 Starfighters and North American F-86 Sabres. His wing also managed to destroy several fuel and ammunition dumps, missile hangars, and ATC buildings.
  

  An image of the attack being conducted by a Dassault Mysteres through its rocket taken from another aircraft’s camera

• To avoid the risk of being detected by the Pakistani radars, Taneja instructed his pilots to land and take off from the Adampur Air Base without runway lights. He also asked them to maintain “radio silence” once they were in the enemy airspace.

• In an interview, Taneja’s teammate claimed that around four aircrafts were forced to return to the base due to Taneja’s instruction as they were unable to locate their team and the target.

• The entire air raid took place for over 90 hours and once when the aircrafts returned safely to Adampur, the pilots and the crew members were awarded Rs. 250 each as a flying hour bonus.

• O. P. Taneja served in Adampur till 1967.

• On 22 September 1969, he was deployed to Amritsar, where he served as a station commander till 11 May 1970. There, he was part of the 230 Singal Unit which controlled the air traffic.

• From 1 May 1970 to 1 December 1970, he held the post of Officer in Charge Flying (OiC Flying) at the Kalaikunda Air Force Base.

• During his service in the IAF, he participated in many aircraft aerobatic shows in India.

• In 1975, after taking voluntary retirement from the Air Force, Om Prakash Taneja worked in the stock exchange for some time.

• He was an avid swimmer and used to go for a swim every day; he used to follow the routine till his death.

• In 2015, he was diagnosed with liver cancer.

• He was a non-religious person and was an Arya Samaji. After he passed away in 2017, his final prayer service was held at the Arya Samaj Mandir in New Delhi. His ex-wife, in an interview, said,
  

  Him not being religious in the strictest sense of the word is one of the reasons we connected. This is also why he wanted his prayer meeting to be held at the Arya Samaj Bhawan in Delhi because it is a movement that is not very ritualistic.”

  

  Group Captain Om Prakash Taneja’s obituary poster

• He died in 2017 while he was visiting his daughter in New Jersey.

• In an interview, his ex-wife claimed that Om Prakash Taneja had once told her that his fellow pilots believed that he was hesitant to fly an aircraft as he stopped clocking his flying hours due to administrative work burden. She also claimed that he never liked discussing the 1965 war when he was with his family.

• Other than flying the Hawker Tempest II, O. P. Taneja also used to fly the Russian-built MiG-21 FL fighter jet.

• On 24 January 2025, his character was portrayed by actor Akshay Kumar in the Hindi film Sky Force.
  

  A photo of Akshay Kumar as O. P. Taneja in the 2025 Hindi film Sky Force