Sergeant Gautam Kumar was an Indian Air Force personnel who hailed from Ailum village in Uttar Pradesh. He was enrolled into the Indian Air Force in June 2006 and served in different Air Force establishments, working with aircraft and associated systems. During 2017, he was serving with 157 Helicopter Unit and was assigned duties as a flight engineer on the Mi-17 V5 helicopter.
On 06 October 2017, Sergeant Gautam Kumar was part of an Indian Air Force crew undertaking an air-maintenance sortie in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh. The helicopter was carrying supplies for a forward post of the Indian Army in difficult, high-altitude terrain.
The Mi-17 V5 crashed near the dropping zone. Sergeant Gautam Kumar and the other six defence personnel onboard sustained fatal injuries. He lost his life while performing an operational support duty for troops deployed in a remote forward area.