IAF’s Cheetah choppers evacuate 90 people in Ladakh

NEW DELHI/LEH - In a daring rescue effort in ravaged Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, six Cheetah helicopters of the Indian Air Force (IAF) Monday did over 60 sorties in very difficult conditions to a remote village badly hit in Friday’s massive cloudburst and evacuated 90 people, including many foreign tourists, an official said.

The stranded people were evacuated from Skyu in the Zanskar Valley, an IAF official said.

About 130 trekkers, mostly foreigners from 12 different countries, and a few Indian porters, were stranded at Skyu.

The village could be reached only through Cheetah helicopters as the flight path was narrow passing through a narrow valley which the large rotor Mi-17 helicopters could not have negotiated.

But even the flight of the Cheetahs was not easy, the official said.

“With touchdowns not feasible at Skyu at the location that had virtually transformed into a vast dissolving island, the daring rescue efforts by the IAF were all carried out by the pilots at low hover,” he said.

The official said it was “a challenging flight manoeuvre of keeping the aircraft stationary, perilously close to the ground even as passengers boarded the flight”.

Each Cheetah helicopter can only take in a maximum of three passengers on board at a time.

Three IL-76 sorties also airlifted two excavators and a 22-tonne Bulldozer apart from six-tonne load of BSNL equipment and 10-tonnne load of the Indian Army’s communication equipment including cables from Chandigarh.

Six AN-32 also flew air maintenance sorties from Chandigarh replenishing stocks and relief materials for the army in the region. IAF aircraft earlier on Sunday had already airlifted medical equipment, medicines and para-medical personnel to Leh from New Delhi and Chandigarh.

The Indian Army, the IAF and paramilitary personnel have been deployed to carry out the rescue operations and provide relief to the people in Ladakh following the devastation caused by a sudden cloudburst that triggered flash floods and mudslides Friday, leaving 145 people dead.