BENGALURU: At around noon last Tuesday, two
Surya Kiran aircraft collided into each other and crashed moments later, killing Wing Commander Sahil Gandhi, and injuring Wing Commander Vijay Shelke and Squadron Leader Tejeshwar Singh. The Surya Kiran Aerobatic Team (SKAT) retreated and remained grounded for three days.
On Saturday, the
Indian Air Force's (IAF) best aerobatic team took to the skies again, surprising many, and inspiring many more. “The show always goes on.”
They enthralled the crowd at
Aero India
on the fourth day—the first of the two public days at the five-day show—and will perform again on Sunday.
Seven aircraft, instead of the customary nine took off for the first time after the crash at 10am on Saturday to perform a 15-minute performance, sans Gandhi, Shelke and Singh, will be among the most anticipated display.
On Thursday, Shelke’s video from Command Hospital, showing his recovery, came as the good news, while Singh had already been discharged from the hospital.
Tuesday’s was the third accident involving Surya Kiran aircraft. On March 18, 2006, Surya Kiran witnessed its first ever crash during a practice flight in a three-ship formation at
Bidar
air base when a plane crashed, killing two pilots on the spot. On January 21, 2009, a Surya Kiran trainer died after his jet crashed near Bidar a few minutes after taking off from the station
The Surya Kiran aerobatic team has been an eye-catcher at multiple Aero India shows and has recently upgraded to flying the Hawk aircraft. They earlier flew the Kiran trainer aircraft, which has been decommissioned by the Indian Air Force (IAF).
Raised in 1996, the SKAT were a six-aircraft team, but they quickly graduated to a nine-plane unit in two years. Painted orange and white, SKAT is among the very few aerobatic teams in the world that fly with nine planes.
Air Marshal RK Bhaduria, IAF Training Command Chief, said: "Not too many teams in the world fly nine aircraft, IAF does. When you operate a nine aircraft in an aerobatic display team, there are risks, they have to operate very close to each other and the margin for error is low. There it is an issue of skill building over time and risk factor, which is balanced with safety.”
Among their top manoeuvres are the delta loop, barrel rolls, and the mirror manoeuvre. Incidentally, on Tuesday the crash happened while the two aircraft tried the mirror manoeuvre.
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