City’s own to fly as deputy leader in IAF air show

Chandigarh: As the Indian Air Force Suryakiran Aerobatic Team, Asia's only nine-aircraft aerobatic team, prepares to take over Chandigarh's skies on March 27 and 28, the spectacle carries a powerful home connect. Behind the precision, speed and split-second coordination are members with roots in the Tricity, including Wing Commander Tejeshwar Singh, the Deputy Leader, who will be among those flying the formation, turning the display into more than just an air show, but a return to the very ground where these journeys first took flight.For Wing Commander Tejeshwar Singh, a 2005 pass-out of Army Public School, Chandimandir, the journey began with a moment of awe. "In Class 10, I saw a flypast of five Jaguars at an air show. I remember turning to my mother and asking, ‘Are these also humans?' She told me they were just like us. That stayed with me," he said. A self-confessed enthusiast of "high-adrenaline things", bikes, cars, machines, he said the pull towards flying was instinctive. After joining the NDA in 2006, choosing the Air Force came naturally. "My father, himself an Armyman, asked why Air Force. I simply said, ‘They have fighters.'"He recalls another defining moment soon after joining the Air Force. "In 2009, during training at Bidar, I saw the Suryakiran team take off in formation. The red uniform, the aura, even the way they walked, I found myself asking again, ‘Who are these people?'" he said, describing how the curiosity that began in school resurfaced with greater clarity. Having since flown the Sukhoi Su-30MKI as his primary platform, he is now part of that very formation, flying the BAE Hawk Mk 132. "Tenure here is limited, but the experience defines you," he said.His association with Suryakiran spans two tenures, 2018 to 2021 and again from 2025, where he now serves as Flight Commander. Son of Col (retd) Bahadur Singh from the Artillery, his family traces his roots to Kartarpur near Jalandhar.While he takes to the skies, Flight Lieutenant Kanwal Sandhu, 29, shapes the experience on ground, ensuring the narration and coordination match the precision in air. The team's commentator and administrator, Sandhu hails from Panchkula and comes from a distinguished Army family- father Col Kirpal Singh (Artillery) and mother Brig Karamjit Kaur (Military Nursing Service). "With both my parents in the Army, the forces were always part of my life. But the turning point for me came later," she said.An architecture graduate from Manipal Institute of Technology, she said her defining moment came during an air show at Aero India in Bengaluru in 2019. "I saw them perform up close, and that stayed with me. That's when I knew I wanted to be a part of this world," she said. She joined the Air Force through AFCAT in 2019, was commissioned in 2020, and became part of the team in 2023.Behind the scenes, Flight Lieutenant Minal Sharma, 27, serves as the team's engineering officer, ensuring maintenance and operational readiness of the aircraft. With a strong tricity connect through Mohali, where he was born, Sharma forms a key part of the support system that keeps the display running smoothly.