North East News Agency

No 115 Helicopter Unit, christened as Hovering Angels by the media for creditable flood relief in Bihar in 1975, is based at Air Force Station Tezpur since 08 Sep 68.  Since then, the Unit has lived up to this reputation every day by evacuating thousands of casualties from inaccessible areas of the North-East.  Operations are made more difficult by landing altitudes spanning nearly 15000’.  With improvement in road network and increased presence of civil aviation in the sector, the number of casualty evacuations undertaken by the unit has reduced.  Nevertheless, missions from the most far-flung and isolated areas, especially when the weather is marginal, are entrusted to the Hovering Angels, who always complete their mission safely.

Recently this unit was tasked to undertake a casualty evacuation from a place called Kapuda, in the Dibang valley.  They casualty was an individual who had suffered a paralytic stroke.  The place was located above 11,000 ft in the Upper Dibang valley about 100 Kms from Malinye and 20 Kms from Kaya la Pass.  Head Quarters, Eastern Air Command, IAF permitted the commitment to be undertaken in Cheetah helicopters in buddy mode owing to the difficulties imposed by altitude and terrain.

A two aircraft Cheetah mission led by Wg Cdr Amit Garg as the mission leader got airborne at 0710 hrs for the casualty evacuation.  The formation landed at Malinye at 1030 hrs after a brief refueling halt at Pasighat.  After landing at Malinye a thorough briefing was obtained from personnel available there.  It was learnt that the point of evacuation was at 2848N 9634E, very close to the International Boundary.  The patient was part of an Indian border patrol in that area.  However, the patrol had no means of communication.  Information about the patient was received from porters who had trekked for over two days to reach Malinye.  The elevation of the place was about 11200 feet and the flying time about 20 minutes from Malinye.  A temporary landing spot had been made available by cutting some vegetation but it did have 2-3 feet high bushes. A careful spot analysis of the situation brought out that there out that there were several impediments to the mission.  Firstly the ai rcraft would be very tight on fuel and only limited loiter time would be available.  Picking up the casualty was an area of concern, as in most of the cases landing is a problem.

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