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Free flight: Silver Falcons soared into ‘new era’

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Free flight: Silver Falcons soared into ‘new era’

With a choreographed roar over the Union Buildings on May 10 1994, the pilots realised they’d ‘made history’

Senior reporter

Everyone at the Union Buildings on that sunny May morning in 1994, when Nelson Mandela was sworn in as SA’s first democratically elected president, would remember the sight. Six silver shapes streaked over Waterkloof Ridge, each trailing a stream of coloured smoke.

As the Impalas screamed overhead, the crowd roared louder than the jets themselves. The voice of the ground controller crackled in the lead pilot’s headphones.

“The people are cheering,” he said...

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