NB Twitter Scan | DARING OPERATION INDEED! Indian Air Force uses night vision goggles, bravely rescues 121 people from Sudan airstrip

Indian Air Force on the intervening night of 27 April and 28, rescued 121 people from Wadi Sayyidna in Sudan in an IAF C-130J heavy-lift aircraft amid bad airstrip and poor night vision

NewsBharati    29-Apr-2023 10:43:55 AM
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Going against all the odds, Indian Air Force is leaving no stone unturned to rescue Indians stranded in war-torn Sudan. In one such daring operation, the IAF personnel on the intervening night of 27 April and 28, rescued 121 people from Wadi Sayyidna in Sudan in an IAF C-130J heavy-lift aircraft amid bad airstrip and poor night vision.
 
Indian Air Force uses night vision goggles to rescue from Sudan
It should be noted that this bad airstrip is about 40 km north of the violence-hit Sudanese capital of Khartoum. The Indians did not had no means of reaching Port Sudan to hop on to an Indian warship.
 
“The passengers included medical cases, including a pregnant lady, besides those who had no means to reach Port Sudan,” Indian Air Force spokesperson Wing Commander Ashish Moghe said in a statement on April 28.
 
 
India's defense attaché in Khartoum led the rescuing party to the Wadi Sayyidna airstrip. He was continuously in touch with the IAF authorities until they reached the airstrip to bring back the people, almost entirely Indian nationals, to safety.
 
With the poor conditions of the airstrip, the surface of the airstrip had worsened, too. There was no fuel or navigational help and also there were no landing lights, which are necessary to guide an aircraft landing at night. Yet in such circumstances, the brave IAF personnel made use of NVGs, or night vision goggles, to successfully land at the airstrip and rescue people.
 
 
"Approaching the airstrip, the aircrew used their Electro-Optical/Infra-Red sensors to ensure that the runway was free from any obstructions and no inimical forces were in the vicinity. Having made sure of the same, the aircrew carried out a tactical approach on Night Vision Goggles, on a practically dark night," Moghe said.
 
 
"Upon landing, the aircraft engines were kept running while eight IAF Garud Commandos secured the passengers and their luggage into the aircraft. As with the landing, the take-off from the unlit runway was also carried out using NVGs. This approximately two-and-a-half-hour operation between Wadi Sayyidna and Jeddah will go down in the annals of IAF history for its sheer audacity and flawless execution - akin to that carried out in Kabul," the IAF officer added.
 
IAF deploys the C-130Js for various missions, including humanitarian aid, natural disaster support, airlift, search and rescue, and special operations. An IAF C-130J was the first aircraft to land and extend support during the Nepal earthquake in recent years.
Indian Air Force Sudan Sudan airstrip C-130J Ashish Moghe Wadi Sayyidna Khartoum