New Delhi, Nov 22 - Heavy smog over the capital and its adjoining areas has forced cancellation of an aerobatic display by the famed Red Arrows team of the Royal Air Force (RAF).The show was to be held at the Hindon Air Force Base in adjacent Ghaziabad Saturday.'The Red Arrows team arrived here on Thursday but after studying the weather conditions, their leader says it is not feasible to fly due to the heavy smog in the air,' said an Indian Air Force (IAF) officer.The IAF was facilitating the display.'The team needs clear skies to perform their stunning, low-flying feats but the smog has rendered this impossible,' the officer added.The Red Arrows team flies the BAE Systems Hawk advanced jet trainer (AJT) that the IAF is in the process of inducting. The IAF's first two Hawks have arrived at their Bidar base in Karnataka and the entire fleet of 66 aircraft will be inducted by 2010-11.A Red Arrows display in 1997 to mark the 50th anniversary of Indian independence had to be cancelled, while a show in 1999 was curtailed due to smog.The pollution-induced smog has largely been blamed on the staggering increase in the number of cars in the city, particularly diesel-fuelled vehicles.Environment watchdog Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has warned that the quality of the city's air is worse than it was before the government mandated in 2000 that all public transport - buses, taxis and auto rickshaws switched to compressed natural gas (CNG) from diesel or petrol.
(c) Indo-Asian News Service
