Mexico City (Mexico)

Mexico 210th Independence Day parade 2020

16 September 2020

Credits: Enrique Giese, Wim Sonneveld

For years, Mexican Independence Day is celebrated as a national holiday on 16 September, usually with a huge military parade in Mexico City. The pandemic and austerity measures by the Mexican government resulted in a smaller event than usual, to avoid the pandemic to spread further. Only days before the actual date, the go-ahead was finally given for the event to take place, albeit in an adapted way. This caused our local correspondent Enrique Giese to rush to Mexico City airport on the morning of 16 September to board Hercules 3616 and join the parade, after receiving the approving phone call late the night before.

Behind the Herk, C-27J Spartan 3401 formed up in the parade, as did four of the participating T-6C+ Texan IIs of the Fuerza Aérea Mexicana (FAM, Mexican air force) for a few minutes. The formation of Texans that accompanied the Herk had some sort of mishap, then, two T-6s that were on the left side disappeared and the formation was undone. Allegedly, someone flew a drone in the path of the Texans who managed to evade it, although no official statement has been made about it.

The commander in charge of the parade was Major General André Georges Foullon Van Lissum, the undersecretary of SEDENA (Ministry of Defence). Participants were down to 671 members of the armed forces and the national guard, as well as just fifteen civilians from public and private institutions in the country, 81 vehicles, 56 aircraft and… 66 horses. For obvious reasons, the time and route of the parade was less than in other years, and the military contingents were
significantly reduced.

Many aspects with regards to the air parade had changed this year, not only due to the pandemic, but also with the construction of Mexico City’s new civil airport at Santa Lucia, once the FAM’s main base. Most of the FAM fixed-wing aircraft will be operating from Mexico City-Benito Juarez and Toluca as was already the case with this year’s air parade. During the air parade, the participating 56 aircraft crossed the skies in complicated weather conditions as many clouds were present around Mexico City. Most of the aircraft belonged to the FAM, incorporating some of the navy and the national guard.

At the Plaza de la Constitución, special forces of the Mexican Army carried out an infiltration with rapid ropes from two EC725 helicopters, whilst two MD530s helicopters acted as air-to-ground security support, demonstrating the high degree of training that the armed forces have in the fulfilment of their missions. At the same spot, paratroopers made a free fall jump from a Mi-17 helicopter, using navigation techniques whilst descending through the clouds, they managed to land in front of to the National Palace without setbacks, despite the horrible weather conditions. Moreover, no less than twenty T-6C+ Texan IIs flew over the National Palace.

For the first time in the air parade, two women formed one aircrew as Lieutenant Miriam Martínez and Second Lieutenant Carolina Paola Pérez flew a FAM T-6C+ together. One of the most colourful formations and unique in the world, three Boeing 737s were escorted by two F-5 jets. Another interesting formation of aircraft consisted of said Hercules 3616, C-27J 3401 and eight T-6C+s. The Mexican national guard’s participation with three UH-60s in the new white/silver colour scheme was another novelty of the 2020 air parade. For its part, the navy contributed with six T-6C, one UH-60M and one EC-725.

The changed format, using multiple bases to launch the aircraft from and adverse weather conditions, proved not helpful in gathering the serial numbers of the parade. The serials below could be gleaned from pictures.

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