Armed Forces on Sunday in a gratitude show performed flypasts over various cities across the nation to salute corona warriors who are risking their lives amid COVID-19 fight in the country. During the flypasts, IAF jets, Navy choppers are showering flower petals over hospitals, war memorial, places of national importance across the nation. The first one to perform the aerial parade was Indian Air Force jets who flew over Srinagar's Dal Lake to pay tribute to medical professionals and all other frontline workers.
In capital Delhi, a fleet of military jets carried out a spectacular fly-past as part of a nationwide exercise to express gratitude to lakhs of doctors, paramedics, sanitation staff and other frontline workers engaged in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
Helicopters of the Indian Air Force, the Navy and the Coast Guard took to the skies and carried out the thanksgiving effort in cities, including Hyderabad, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Visakhapatnam, and Bengaluru. The military jets, including Sukhoi-30 MKI, MiG-29 and Jaguar, flew over Rajpath, Delhi's centrepiece boulevard, and then orbited over the city for around 30 minutes from 11 am.
More than 200 healthcare workers in Delhi have been affected by the coronavirus.
Armed forces thank corona warriors, flypast across cities | In Pictures
In Kochi, the headquarters of the Southern Naval Command, Naval aircraft carried out a fly-past over the Marine Drive while seven Fast Interceptor Crafts undertook a steam-past in the channel along the city's iconic spot.
The front-line workers were overwhelmed by the gesture of the armed forces as they clapped and took photos as the choppers whizzed past them.
"We are doing our duty, we know the danger of the disease, but we come here and do as its our duty. Such gesture, that too from the Armed forces is great, it will help us keep going," a hospital staff said in Bengaluru.
Meanwhile, two IAF C-130J Super Hercules special operations transport aircraft flew over Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh. The aircraft took off from Srinagar, J&K and will fly all the way to Trivandrum in Kerala to show gratitude towards COVID-19 warriors.
In Hyderabad, IAF's Chetak helicopter hovered over the state-run Gandhi hospital and showered petals as doctors, nurses, paramedical, sanitation and other staff and police personnel assembled near the premises.
In Lucknow, an IAF helicopter on Sunday showered rose petals on doctors, nurses and other para-medical staff of King George's Medical University (KGMU) and the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute for Medical Sciences (SGPGI) here as a mark of respect towards the "corona warriors".
Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, alongside all the three service heads, announced on Friday the "gesture of special gratitude" will consist of the Air Force conducting flypasts across the length and breadth of the country. Another "gesture of special gratitude" will be helicopters showering petals on hospitals and Army bands playing outside medical buildings in most districts, General Rawat said.
The first show of gratitude to health workers was when Prime Minister Narendra Modi requested people to clap for them from their balconies. Then came a show of solidarity with turning off lights and lighting candles. The latest gesture by the armed forces is the third massive display of gratitude to health workers.
(With inputs from PTI)
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