Cairo - Arab Today
President Abdel Fattah El Sisi attended the graduation of the 83rd batch of the Egyptian Air Academy on Wednesday.
The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief and Defense Minister Sedqi Sobhi, House of Representatives Speaker Ali Abdel Aal and a number of ministers and statesmen.
The event started with playing the national anthem.
After the national anthem was played, a Gazelle helicopter flew carrying the Egyptian flag and the flags of Armed Forces branches.
More than 300 army jets and helicopters participated in the event with 40 different planes synchronizing with each other during take off from eight intersecting Air Academy runways.
The Air Academy students started a military parade, which passed in front of the platform of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi.
Air forces of different classes carried out formations in the air, including a raid to show their distinguished organization, planning and training.
French-made multi-role Rafale fighter jets also joined the formations.
Gazelle helicopters, which can be deployed on the Mistral-class amphibious assault ship/helicopter carrier of the French Mistral class that Egypt just received from France last month, also flew in formations during the graduation ceremony.
Multi-role jets then carried out an air raid with electronic support aircraft and Apache helicopters.
The Air Force aerobatic display team “Silver Stars”, whose pilots are flying instructors at the Air Academy, carried out different air shows accentuating their accuracy and skillfulness.
The deputy director of the Air Academy then announced the results of Batch 83 that were ratified by the defense minister.
The students then handed over the leadership to Batch 84 students.
Excellent students from Egypt and Arab countries were awarded second-class Medal of Military Duty.
Source : MENA