Article Posted on : - Oct 03, 2011

Women sky-diving team to perform on Air Force Day

NEW DELHI(PTI): Buoyed by the success of its female officers in summiting the Mount Everest, the Indian Air Force has formed a new all-women sky-diving team which will showcase its first performance at the 79th anniversary celebrations of the service on October 8.

"We are going to have an all-women sky-diving team and they are practising for the Air Force Day parade on October 8," highly-placed IAF officials told PTI here.

Significantly, this will be the first all-women sky-diving team of any defence force in the world. The team has six members who are training hard for the occasion, the officials said.

This team will be there in addition of the 'Akashganga' sky-diving team, which has been performing for the last several years at both national and international events. The idea to have such a team was mooted after three woman officers successfully scaled the Mount Everest in June, they said.

"Not only our women officers scaled the Mount Everest, they also took the second and sixth position in the International High Altitude Marathon held there," an official said.

Interestingly, the first place in the competition was secured by Corporal Raju Sindhu, who also successfully summited the Everest.

Flight Lieutenant Nivedita Choudhary, Squadron Leader Nirupama Pandey and Flight Lieutenant Rajika Sharma reached the 8,848-metre summit becoming the first three women IAF officers to have achieved the feat.