IAF lies low, fly past to lose much of its colour

‘‘There will be no elaborate aerobatics on display this year. Even the ‘vertical charlie’ performed by the Su-30s is not on plan as of now. The Su-30s and Jaguars will fly past in a shock wave formation and the Surya Kirans will have a small display depending on the visibility,’’ IAF officials said.

On Air Force Day last year, aerobatics had to be cancelled due to poor visibility. Even at the induction ceremony of the Su-30 MKI last week in Pune, only one Su-30 MKI aircraft took off and landed after flying past the dais without carrying out any fly past. This was part of Air Chief S. Krishnaswamy’s directive.

Military aviation officials have been debating the need to carry out complex manoeuvres for VVIP audiences for several years now, especially after a Mirage 2000 crashed in New Delhi during Air Force Day celebrations in 1989, killing the pilot.

‘‘There was a near miss even during the Republic Day celebrations two years ago when a Navy aircraft in the fly past came in a minute early and disturbed the fly past formation. With the President, Prime Minister and the entire government top brass at Rajpath, a decision was taken to avoid complex fly pasts last year,’’ officials at Air headquarters said.

‘‘While military aviation is all about nerves and operating in tense situations putting the aircraft and the pilot to the extreme endurance, there is no point risking lives and property of civilians during ceremonial fly pasts. This is a part of the thinking now. Any decision will of course depend on views of all concerned,’’ they said.

‘‘Carrying out complex manoeuvres, the aircraft have to come very close together so that the spectators on ground can see the aerobatics. In such situations, the margin of error is greatly reduced. With aircraft and pilots constantly carrying out exercises during the Operation Parakram deployment we do not want to tax them unnecessarily with fly pasts,’’ an official said.