In the early hours on Saturday, India's C-17 plane landed at Singapore's Changi Airport. The plane, the transport workhorse of the Indian Air Force (IAF) was on an unusual mission. With Covid second wave mauling India badly, the aircraft was participating in a mammoth global scramble to bring in oxygen home from wherever it is available, to patients gasping for breath. Containers of cryogenic oxygen tanks were loaded on the plane ahead of its flight back home. India's Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) was coordinating this gigantic effort mounted by the IAF to counter the second coming of Covid in the country.
As the IAF planes continued with serial sorties to reduce the transportation time of oxygen and other critical supplies, a jumbo C-17 also left Hindan Air Base for Singapore at 2 AM Saturday. It reached the Changi Airport at 7.45 am. After loading four containers of cryogenic oxygen tanks, it will depart and land at Panagarh air base by evening today from where the oxygen will be transported to various cities.
"We stand with India in its fight against Covid-19. Through a bilateral and multi-agency effort, an IAF transport plane picked up 4 cryogenic oxygen containers at Changi Airport in Singapore this morning," tweeted the Singapore embassy in New Delhi, a short while ago.
The IAF is already airlifting oxygen containers, cylinders, essential medicines, equipment required for setting up and sustaining Covid hospitals and facilities in the fight against fresh surge in Covid-19 cases. The IAF transport aircraft and helicopters have been pressed into service for carrying out these tasks. These include transport aircraft C-17, C-130J, IL-76, An-32 and Avro. Chinook and Mi-17 helicopters are also on standby.
The C-17 and IL-76 aircraft of IAF have started airlifting big empty oxygen tanks from their place of use to the filling stations across the country to speed up the distribution of much needed oxygen.
In addition to this, the C-17 and IL-76 have transported large quantities of load comprising bio safety cabinets and autoclave machines for setting up of an additional Covid test facility at Leh.
The IAF transport and helicopter assets have been put on standby to be deployed at short notice.
Besides getting oxygen supplies from in and outside the country, tasks undertaken by the IAF also include airlifting of doctors and nursing staff from Kochi, Mumbai, Vizag and Bangalore for various hospitals at Delhi.
It may be recalled that in the initial days of Covid-19 outbreak last year, the IAF ran several sorties to deliver medicines, medical and other essential supplies required to combat the coronavirus pandemic as well as bringing back stranded Indian nationals from abroad.
MHA is coordinating lifting of high capacity tankers from abroad by IAF aircraft for movement of O2, reqd due to current surge in COVID-19 cases in the country. Here Liquid O2 containers can be seen being loaded at Changi Airport, Singapore, today@HMOIndia @DDNewslive @ANI pic.twitter.com/DlC5WZBamw
— Spokesperson, Ministry of Home Affairs (@PIBHomeAffairs) April 24, 2021
