engineer:But if I was going to pick anyone to rescue me from a mountaintop, it would be India...
Well now will be a good time to explain the IAF's mountain rescue capabilities...
In 1993, a case came to light where an article in a French and British mountaineering magazine lauded the heroic rescue of the author, a mountaineer
and his friend, who had broken his spine during a fall while mountaineering in India. They were marooned on a narrow ledge but managed to get an SOS
out on their HF radio set. An IAF Cheetah helicopter from AF station Bareilly responded, when the weather was really bad. There was just enough place
to hover with one ski on the ledge (and the other still in air), in gusty and white-out conditions - but they got the casualties on board and got them
to Bareilly. On being summoned by the Chief of Air Staff and asked why they had not reported such a feat (after the IAF Air-Attache in France reported
the article, more than a year later) the captain pilot confessed that as they were operating well below minima, they didn’t want to be rapped on the
knuckles for it and so wisely kept their mouths shut! However, the grateful mountaineer subsequently recounted the entire incident in a French
magazine, and said QUOTE “I could not believe my eyes to see a helicopter come to our rescue in such impossible conditions. No other air force in the
world could be expected to perform such difficult mission” UnQUOTE. The IAF later awarded a Vayu Sena Medal to the pilots. I saw the pictures taken by
the mountaineers during rescue and they are hair rising to say the least; One Cheetah ski on the ledge and other in the air, the whirling rotor just a
foot away from the solid mountain cliff.
This is not an isolated case, but IAF and its men do go above and beyond the call of duty and the realm of possibility with guts and glory.
One must realize that India is a country of limited means and so are its Defense forces but they do a magnificent job with what they have.Yet we
understand that IAF is not a district "fire department service" whose mandate is to respond to every incidence of civilan accident (however
unfortunate it may be).
Comparing “The quick and generous response of the British and French authorities” which BTW is mandated role of coastguard to IAF’s responding to
civilian authorities call for help in a far more dangerous and in a non-mandatory organizational responsibility is totally uncalled for , unjustified
and irrational.
And here's another rescue from the IAF.
Saviour Cheetah clocks new record
Oh, i guess we should go back to 'feeding' ourselves than saving lives.
[edit on 29-11-2004 by aryaputhra]
