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Daring Air Force men with flying
machines
Srinagar/Jammu, February 23 While the fixed-wing giants ferry in much needed supplies to Srinagar, which remains cut-off due to land routes being blocked by unprecedented snowfall, it is the helicopters which are maintaining the link to remote and inaccessible areas.
“We are on standby from dawn to dusk,” Sqn Ldr Jitendra Yadav of the Daring Dragons helicopter unit said. “We often fly six or seven sorties a day to ferry supplies or evacuate stranded people,” he said. Two helicopter units based in Jammu and Udhampur, which specialise in supporting operations in Siachen, have also been tasked to undertake relief and rescue sorties. Several helicopters from these squadrons have been deployed for relief operations. The additional task of relief operations notwithstanding, the life line remains active as ever. “The Siachen operations are critical and cannot be touched,” an officer said. “Even at this moment we have several helicopters operating in that sector,” he added. The biggest operation carried out by the Daring Dragons was the evacuation of 400 civilians from Bannihal within three hours on Sunday. Besides, the choppers are also ferrying in vegetables and rations to various places. “We continuously flew for three days, dropping 300 tonnes of food and relief material like snow tents over the villages, and evacuating people,” he said. Pilots also dared to land on fresh snow in an effort to bring out people to safety. “The biggest challenge is the weather,” Squadron Leader Yadav said. “It is an irony that just when we are needed the most, the weather does not permit us to fly,” he added. “We are airlifting as much as 40 tonnes of load every day,” Gp Captain R Shankar, the Station Commander at Jammu said. “During the past two days, we have executed about 80 sorties from Jammu, Udhampur and Pathankot,” he added. He said that the men as well as machines are geared up for all types of rescue operations, including evacuation from avalanche prone areas. “In places where choppers cannot land, we are using winches to evacuate people,” he added. At times, parachutes are being used to airdrop relief material. Since the rescue operations began, the air force has airlifted 30,000 people, including uniformed personnel as well as civilians. Doda, Kishtwar and Nawapanchi are among areas demanding greater attention. A few days ago, blankets were also airlifted to Leh. Group Captain Shankar said that the newly acquired Mi-17 IV choppers are also be used for night operations as they are equipped for instrument flight rules, that is enabled to flying in the dark with the help of ground based aids. IAF pilots said that aircraft are being pushed to operate upon the outer fringes of their performance capability in an endeavour to get the maximum work done in the shortest possible time.  |
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Srinagar, February 23 Ms Gandhi was scheduled to address people who had gathered at Khanabal after the aerial survey of the affected areas but had to cut short the visit to valley due to heavy fog cover, the sources said. “The helicopter could not land at Khanabal due to inclement weather conditions. Ms Gandhi flew to towards Poonch after conducting an aerial survey of the avalanche hit areas in Qazigund and Verinag areas,” the sources said. —PTI |
Fresh avalanche in Rajouri, two killed Jammu, February 23 An official spokesman said here this evening that in a fresh avalanche at Koteranka, two persons, including a woman, were killed and five wounded. —
UNI
Srinagar, February 23 Official sources said besides the six ITBP jawans, three civilians, including one child, were among those rescued. —
ANI |
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