From evaluation flight to display team

Sarang, Sanskrit for peacock, India’s national bird, began in 2002 as an IAF evaluation flight for the new HAL Advanced Light Helicopter, later named Dhruv. The flight was re-tasked as a display team in October 2003 and first performed in public at the Asian Aerospace show in Singapore in February 2004. It became No. 151 Helicopter Unit in 2005. The team was first based at Yelahanka near Bengaluru and moved to Sulur Air Force Station near Coimbatore in 2009. It comes under Southern Air Command.

The peacock Dhruvs

The team flies HAL Dhruv Mk.I helicopters in a peacock livery, fitted with canisters for white smoke. For twenty years the display used four helicopters. In 2023 it moved to a five-helicopter display. Sarang performs at Aero India, at Air Force Day and Navy Week events and at Wings India. In February 2024 it flew at the Singapore Airshow, its second display abroad after the 2004 debut in Singapore.

Losses and disaster relief

On 2 February 2007 a Sarang Dhruv crashed near Yelahanka while practising for Aero India 2007. The co-pilot, Squadron Leader Priyesh Sharma, was killed. The pilot, Wing Commander Vikas Jettley, was critically injured and died in 2011 after four years in a coma. On 27 February 2010 another team helicopter made a controlled crash-landing in Jaisalmer district after a sudden loss of power while rehearsing for Exercise Vayushakti. The team still flew the next day. Sarang crews have also flown relief missions after the 2013 Uttarakhand floods, the 2015 Chennai and 2018 Kerala floods, and Cyclones Ockhi and Michaung.