POST 1971 HISTORY..
AIR FORCE DAY PARADE - 1989
A PHOTO FEATURE BY ARUN SHARMA
Introduction
Every year the Indian Air Force celebrates the Air Force Day on October 8. To mark the occasion, a parade is conducted in the capital of New Delhi where VIPs and important dignitaries gather at the Palam Air Force Base to witness the Air Force Day Parade. The Parade is inspected by the Chief of Air Staff and it is also the occasion for the Air Force to honour its members.
October 8th, 1989 was not different from the earlier Air Force Day Parades, but it ended on a tragic note. The day saw the crash of a Dassault Mirage 2000 of No.7 Squadron and the death of the pilot Wing Commander Ramesh Bakshi, the CO of the squadron. Wg Cdr Bakshi was giving a solo aerobatics display at the time of the crash. The Parade has gone down in IAF history as the only public occasion in which there was an accident and fatality.
The parade was inspected by Air Chief Marshal S K "Polly" Mehra, Chief of Air Staff. Important dignitaries like the Chief of Army Staff General V N Sharma and the Chief of Navy Staff, Admiral J G Nadkarni were present during the occasion. Also gracing the venue were 2000 visitors who had come to see the parade.
After the initial general salute and inspection, the rank and file marched past the podium. The aircraft from different squadrons flew past the podium in several formations. A Mixed formation, followed by the Big Boy and finally a composite formation of MiG-29s and MiG-27s.
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| 0815 Hrs: General Salute: The Guard of Honor salutes the arrival of the Chief of Air Staff to the parade venue | 0823 Hrs: Mi-8 Flypast: The IAF Ceremonial parades always start with the IAF ensign being flown under a Helicopter. In this case a formation of three Mi-8 choppers fly the colors |
0909 Hrs: Mixed formation: An IL-76 transport flies past flanked by two MiG-29 fighters during the flypast |
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0910 Hrs: Big Boy: The Original "Big Boy" Formation consisting of the Giant IL-76, flanked by the Mid size An-32s and the diminutive Dornier 228 Transport aircraft. |
0912 Hrs: MiGs Flypast: A Composite box formation of MiGs. Two MiG-29s and two MiG-27s fly over the podium. |
Vintage Flight
A Unique component of the flypast was the Vintage aircraft flypast. For the first time, the Vintage flight of the Air Force museum flew its aircraft. This flypast started towards the fag-end of the program, and was the penultimate event before the Mirage display. The first aircraft was the Tigermoth DH.82 HU-713 in yellow training colors. This was followed by the Cirrus Major powered HT-2 IX-732. The Indian Air Force already had Lycoming powered HT-2s flying at the FIS even in 1989. The Spitfire and the Vampire came next, making a low flypast over the tarmac. Both aircraft peeled off after one run.
That was the last occasion on which the public got to see the Vintage flight in action. The aircraft have not been flown publicly after that day. On later occasions, the aircraft have been towed past the podium, perhaps to reduce the risk of accidents but the maintenance and upkeep of these aircraft is kept at airworthy standards.
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| 0918 Hrs: Vintage flypast: Supermarine Spitfire VIII NH-631 buzzes the podium at low-level during the flypast. Note the line of static aircraft display. | 0920 Hrs: Vampire : De Havilland FB.52 Vampire makes a low flying pass over the crowd on 8th October 1989. | Close up of the Vampire IB-799 during the flypast. |
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| The Spitfire and the Vampire peel off at the end of the flypast. This was the last time that the two aircraft were seen flying together. | 0922 Hrs: Vintage flypast ends: The Vampire turns back to head for the Palam airfield. |
The Tragic finale
The final event of the day was a solo Aerobatics display by a lone Mirage 2000 of No.7 Squadron. The pilot giving the display was none other than the CO of No.7 Squadron, Wg Cdr Ramesh Bakshi. Popularly known as Joe, Wg Cdr Bakshi was one of the pilots who was trained in France during the initial training conducted by Dassault Aviation for our pilots. He had been with No.7 as a senior Flight Commander for some years before taking over as the Commanding Officer. He had more than 500 Hours of flying experience on the Mirage.
The display was breath taking. Consisting of flybys and vertical climbs. Towards the end of the Aerobatic display , Wg Cdr Bakshi did what was supposed to be the last maneuver of the day. Dubbed the "Vertical Charlie" in which the Mirage would pull up in a vertical climb, rolling along the vertical axis of the climb before pulling into an inverted level flight. After a short inverted flight, the Mirage pulled down in a vertical dive now repeating the same rolls in a dive. Wg Cdr Bakshi was to complete three rolls and pull up but somewhere along the spiralling dive, he lost count after the third roll. There was a slight hesitation in the Mirage's attitude before it went into a fourth roll.
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| 0922 Hrs: Solo Mirage: Wg Cdr R Bakshi of No.7 Sqn flew a solo Aerobatic Display towards the end of the Parade | There were two fast passes before culminating into a 'Vertical Charlie' | 0925 Hrs: Vertical Charlie: Close up of the Illfated Mirage KF-102 before it pulled up into a Vertical Charlie maneuver |
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0926 Hrs: IMPACT: Spectators view in horror as the Mirage explodes in a ball of flame. Two persons were killed outside the airfield |
Late Wing Commander Ramesh "Joe" Bakshi, The CO of No.7 Battle Axe Squadron. |
Some officers in the audience stood up in surprise as the aircraft went into the roll. One Senior Air Marshal was also heard shouting "What is he doing?". The Mirage pulled up in the nick of the time, but it was at very low altitude, hardly at 10 feet above ground level. Perhaps Wg Cdr Bakshi could still have made it if not for an electric pole that came in his flight path. With not enough space to maneuver, the Mirage's Wing got sheared apart by the electric pole. The aircraft slammed into a small building 700 meters away from the horrified spectators . The fuel tank exploded into a huge fireball and debris fell on a number of Air Force Coaches parked nearby completely gutting them. Some debris hit the Static aircraft display. Atleast one Mi-8 was leaking fuel after its tanks were pierced by the debris. It was manually pushed away by the airmen.
The explosion took place just outside the airfield perimeter along a row of huts outside, and the debris killed one person immediately. Another person died later in the hospital due to burns. There was no way that Wg Cdr Ramesh Bakshi could have survived the accident. There was absolutely no time to eject from the aircraft. It all happened in a moment's time. Besides the two hut dwellers who died in the crash, another twenty were injured , but no casualties occurred inside the airfield.
The deceased Wing Commander is survived by his wife Smt. Aruna Bakshi and two daughters.
All photographs of the parade have been taken by Mr. Arun Sharma (Arun_S1971@yahoo.com ). The pictures are his exclusive copyright and may not be reproduced without permission.
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