Fulfilling a long-cherished dream, Indian adventurist Shital Rane-Mahajan yesterday dived from over 5,000ft in Finland with a tricolour to mark India’s 72nd Independence Day.
The flag, measuring 10ft by 6ft, was handed over to Shital by Indian Ambassador to Finland Vani Rao after the Independence Day celebrations by the Indian community in Helsinki.
“From Helsinki, we drove down to the Utti Skydiving Centre, around 100km away, for the skyjump, which was absolutely smooth and successful,” an elated Shital told IANS on phone from Finland.
The 36-year-old mother of two said the weather was perfect for the adventure and that she jumped off an aircraft from 5,000ft and landed at the designated spot, with the huge flag fluttering all through the descent.
“It all happened within 100 seconds. I stepped out of the aircraft, opened my parachute and then the flag bag tied to my waist, unfurled the tricolour and continued with my dive,” Shital said.
Waiting below was her anxious husband Vaibhav and their nine-year-old twin sons Vrushabh and Vaishnav, besides a large number of onlookers who cheered her.
Though Shital – a 2011 Padma Shri awardee – has performed several demo skydives in India with different flags depending on the sponsors, this was her first-ever with the national flag.
Before her, renowned Indian adventure sportswomen Rachel Thomas and Archana Sardana have performed similar skydives on various occasions with the tricolour.
In February, Shital hit the headlines when she skydived from 13,000ft over Pattaya in Thailand, sporting a colourful ‘nav-wari sari’ (traditional Maharashtrian nine-yard sari).
Hailing from Pune, Shital has around 18 national and six international skydiving records and has completed more than 705 skyjumps around the world.
She shot to global fame on April 18, 2004, when she made her maiden jump – without practice – on the North Pole from a Russian MI-8 helicopter hovering 2,400ft above the ground in minus 37 degrees temperature, making her the first woman in the world to accomplish the feat.
On December 15, 2006, she made the world’s first accelerated freefall parachute jump at the South Pole in Antarctica from a Twin Otter aircraft, coming down from a height of 11,600ft.
This made her the first and the youngest woman in the world to achieve the feat at both Poles at the age of 23.




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