Hyderabad, March 08: The crash of an aircraft, which claimed two lives on the first day of the Aviation India-2010 a five-day event, held here, dampened the spirits of enthusiastic visitors resulting in low turnout to the show on the last day on Sunday.
Last two days of the aviation show were meant for the general public viewing while the first three days were meant for business visitors.
According to Colonel Vivek Kodikal, Regional Director FICCI, as many as 60,000 visitors including business class visited the five-day event which was organised jointly by the Ministry of Civil Aviation and FICCI.
“The unfortunate event on the first day and subsequent cancellation of various air shows dampened public enthusiasm” Kodikal said, adding “students are busy with preparing for their annual exams.” However, observers feel the turnout was less than 40,000 this year as against nearly one lakh in the previous edition in 2008.
“I hoped to see bigger aircrafts and displays. There are hardly any,” said Anirudh Sharma a 10-year-old student from a city school. Colonel Kodikal said a number of B to B meetings took place this year and the exact number would be known after some time.
–PTI