Without any navigational aid, fuel, or landing lights, a C-130J heavy-lift aircraft of the Indian Air Force, in a daring operation, rescued 121 people, from a small airstrip at Wadi Sayyidna which is about 40 km north of the violence-hit Sudanese capital city of Khartoum under operation Kaveri.
Those rescued in the operation– carried out on the intervening night of April 27 and 28– include a pregnant woman and others who had no means to reach Port Sudan, the key transit point from where India is rescuing its citizens using military aircraft and naval ships.
As per IAF officials, the airstrip in question had a degraded surface with no navigational aid or fuel, and most critically no landing lights which are required to guide an aircraft landing at night, said one of the officials.
Knowing that the airstrip had no facilities to facilitate the rescue mission, the aircrew used their Electro-Optical and Infra-Red sensors to ensure that the runway was free from any obstructions and that no inimical forces were in the vicinity.
“Having made sure of the same, the aircrew carried out a tactical approach using night vision goggles on a practically dark night,” said one official.
“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 night vision goggles,” he said.
“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 official said.
As per Defence sources, the mission was carried out by Group Captain Ravi Nanda of the Indian Air Force.
“Nanda was awarded a gallantry medal for rescuing Indians from Afghanistan in August 2021 as part of Operation Devi Shakti. The IAF aircraft fly with a team of Garud Special Forces on all such missions,” sources said.
India launched ‘Operation Kaveri’ earlier this week to bring back the stranded Indians from Sudan.
Sudan has been witnessing fighting between the country’s army and a paramilitary group that has reportedly left around 400 people dead.
The Indian Air Force had carried out similar operations to evacuate Indians from Kabul after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
(With PTI Inputs)
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