After the first missile attack in Karachi in 1971, the Navy hastily established the naval air arm by leasing a civilian aircraft, the Fokker F27, from the Pakistan International Airlines whose pilots volunteered to carry the naval observers on a maritime reconnaissance on 6 December 1971. Cdre. A. W. Bhomba, the senior forward observer, mistakenly identified his own ship, forming defences at that time, and gave clearance to the Pakistan Air Force to carry out a bombing mission to target the ship – a friendly fire incident that further hampered Navy's operational scope.