Out of box thinking applied for operations: top IAF commander

The Indian Air Force (IAF), which has undertaken its biggest ever helicopter operation for rescue and relief in Uttarakhand, had to think 'out of the box' many times while flying in the difficult terrain and weather conditions in the state, a top official today said.

'We had to innovate and improvise and think out of the box many a times when we flew sorties here. Weather conditions and hilly terrain are very challenging for the operations,' Air Vice Marshal S R K Nair said when he was asked about the challenges his pilots and men were facing while carrying out rescue missions in the state.

Nair, the chief of IAF's helicopter and transportation wing, had reached the airbase here yesterday after a Mi-17 V5 crashed in the Garhwal ranges near Gaurikund.

'There are so many things to learn from this operation in terms of operating in such tough situations. When we go into the debriefing of this operation we will talk about these lessons,' Nair said.

The top IAF commander said it would take about 'four more clear flying days' to culminate the operations.

The IAF pilots have clocked close to 1,700 sorties in this operation.

Badrinath and Harsil are now the thrust areas for us and we are flying as many sorties as we could, he said.

Nair also briefed IAF Chief Air Marshal N A K Browne here at the helipad about  the operations being initiated from here.

Nair said a number of challenging things like setting up ATCs at Dehradun (Jolly Grant Airport) and Gauchar and air lifting of fuel bowsers to replenish the choppers were done for the operation which has entered its ninth day today.

There was very less time for us to prepare for this task as we 'plunged straight into emergency' and since then there has been no looking back, he said.

Nair said, may be, as a lesson, they would want to create some permanent helipads in the disaster prone state so that chopper based operations could be done swiftly.

Meanwhile, the IAF continued its operations in the state as it deployed a C-130J for planning chopper operations there.

The IAF since morning had flown 64 sorties, airlifting about 636 persons.

The IAF since June 17 has flown a total of 1540 sorties, airlifting approximately 13,052 pilgrims dropping/landing 2,16,310 kgs of relief material and equipment.

Meanwhile, the IAF has recovered five more bodies till evening from the site of the chopper crash. All the 20 persons on board the aircraft perished in Tuesday's crash.

The IAF and the Army have deployed their armed commandos in the area to search for bodies as it is infested with wild animals including bears.