Air show leaves city wide-eyed

Lucknow: Giving the city a glimpse of the capabilities of their flying machines, the Indian Air Force on Wednesday became an adrenaline pump for the audience at the two-hour-long aerobatic display at Bakshi Ka Talab.
The dance of the daredevils, organised in the city after more than a decade, left people wide-eyed as performances rolled out one by one.
Internationally acclaimed teams such as Akashganga-The Paratrooper Team, Sarang-Helicopter Formation Air Display Team, Surya Kiran-Formation Aerobatics Team, Su-30 MKI aircraft, MiG-21 and Kiran Mk-II aircraft amazed schoolchildren and adults alike at the show.
As part of the performanbce by Akashganga , a team of 14 paratroopers jumped out of the aircraft with parachutes with the confidence of a soldier, grace of a ballet dancer and energy of a tiger.
There were 500 schoolchildren apart from 500 other invitees at the event.
"I got up at 4am due to excitement to report at BKT by 10am and see the aircraft variegating the sky tricolour," said Anshuman Mallik, a student of a private school.
For some, it was a dream come true to witness the show live.
"I used to see such shows on Independence Day and Republic Day on TV but this was a dream come true for me," said Suhana Awasthi, another student at the venue.
A major attraction was the tricolour take-off of Surya Kiran Aerobatic team. The sky turned saffron, white and green with the smoke of 'The Sharks'.
"It takes more than a year and lots of practice to come up with such display since the season and weather keep disturbing it. For a pilot to perform at this level, it takes more than five years," said air marshal SBP Sinha, air officer commanding-in-chief, central air command, IAF.
Group captain Tarun Chaudhry, station commander BKT, was also present.
Governor Ram Naik was the guest of honour.