New Delhi, May 3: The armed forces would be conducting an unprecedented ceremony to honour those at the frontline of the COVID-19 battle. In the press conference addressed by the three service chiefs, it was announced the Indian Air Force (IAF) would be conducting a flypast and the Indian Navy would be organising an illumination ceremony, dedicated to the police personnel and healthcare workers who are relentlessly working since the outbreak of coronavirus.
The timings of the flypast ceremony was announced by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Saturday. The flypast would begin in the morning at 9 am in the national capital, where petals would be dropped on the national war memorial.
From 10 am, the IAF - using Sukhoi-30 MKI, MiG-29 and Jaguar - will be showcasing flypasts and dropping petals over all major hospitals across the country. The task would be overseen by the Northern, Western, Southern and Eastern Commands in their respective regions.
The thanks-giving activities will start with laying of wreaths at the police memorial in Delhi and in several other cities on Sunday morning to honour the police personnel deployed for enforcement of the nationwide lockdown, officials said.
It will be followed by fly-pasts by fighter jets and transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force, covering a sizeable number of cities and towns across the country beginning 10 AM, officials said.
Cities where fighter jets of IAF will conduct fly-pasts include Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Patna and Lucknow. Transport aircraft of the force will carry out similar drills in a number of cities including Srinagar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jaipur, Bhopal, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Coimbatore and Thiruvananthapuram, officials said.
They said fighter aircraft formations, comprising Sukhoi-30 MKI, MiG-29 and Jaguar, will be flying over Rajpath, Delhi''s centrepiece boulevard, and will orbit over the city for around 30 minutes from 10 AM.
"In addition, C-130 transport aircraft will follow a similar profile as fighters covering the entire Delhi and NCR region. The aircraft will be flying at an approximate height of 500 metres to 1000 metres keeping aerospace safety in mind especially in respect of bird activity," an IAF official said. He said the fly-past is combined with the training activity of the IAF.
Helicopters from the IAF and Indian Navy will fly over hospitals treating coronavirus patients and shower petals as a tribute to the corona warriors, the officials said.
In Delhi, IAF helicopters are scheduled to shower flower petals on a number of hospitals including AllMS, Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital, GTB, LNJP, Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, Safdarjung, Sir Ganga Ram hospital, Baba Saheb Ambedkar hospital, Max hospital in Saket, Apollo Indraprastha hospital and Army Research and Referral hospital.
Military bands will play "patriotic tunes" outside various civil hospitals treating coronavirus patients across the country, the officials said.
Separately, Indian Navy helicopters will shower petals on Kasturba Gandhi hospital and naval medical hospital Ashwini in Mumbai, GMC and ESI hospitals in Goa, Ernakulam General hospital in Kochi, Government TB and Chest hospital in Vizag and GB Pant hospital in Port Blair.
Watch Rehearsal Videos of Indian Navy
#WATCH: Eastern Naval Command fired flares in the air from two Indian Navy ships today as part of rehearsals at Ramakrishna Beach in Visakhapatnam, ahead of its ceremony tomorrow that is being organised to show solidarity with COVID-19 warriors.
177 people are talking about this
Navy officials said the Western Naval Command will illuminate five naval ships from 7:30 PM to 11:59 PM off the Gateway of India in Mumbai.
They would display banners like "India Salutes Corona Warriors" and will sound the siren of the ships and fire flares at 7:30 PM at anchorage. Additionally, the Naval air stations at Goa would organise a human chain on the runway to honour the ''corona warriors''.
0 Comments