When there was an outcry over oxygen, how did the Air Force run 'Mission Oxygen' to save lives? know everything

New Delhi: 3000 hours in the sky, more than 1600 flights, traveling about 1 million nautical miles in India and abroad, 800 oxygen containers, 13500 metric tons of oxygen, the entire military transport aircraft fleet of the Indian Air Force, and the mission oxygen of the Indian Air Force. These figures may be of the 'Mission-Oxygen' of the Indian Air Force, but these are not just figures. This is the mission in which the Indian Air Force was engaged for the last one and a half months.

In the Corona era, when there was an outcry in the country about the oxygen, the Air Force took the front like a troubleshooter. Whether at home and abroad, Air Force aircraft not only played a decisive role in ridding the countrymen of the lack of oxygen, day and night but also saved the lives of thousands of patients fighting Corona. After all, to know how the Air Force completed the mission-oxygen, the team of ABP News itself reached Hindon Air Base, adjacent to the capital Delhi.

When the team of ABP News reached Hindon Airbase, the C-17 Globemaster, the largest military transport aircraft of the Air Force, was ready to fly there. This aircraft was flying to Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh. The aircraft is to be airlifted to Bhubaneswar immediately after airlifted empty container from there.

Hindon Airbase has a full squadron of Globemaster, one of the world's largest military aircraft, known as 'SkyLord'. For the last one and a half months, C-17 Globemaster has been bringing day-and-night, indigenous cryogenic oxygen containers, oxygen cylinders, and other medical equipment to fight the corona, including the concentrator.

A second C-17 Globemaster stands at the Hindon airbase, which returned a few hours earlier from Hamburg, Germany with four large-capacity containers. Each of these containers has a capacity of about 270 thousand liters. The special thing is that these containers can be directly filled with Oxygen cylinders so that patients can be sent to the hospital as soon as possible.

A senior officer posted at Air Force Headquarters at Hindon Airbase, Group Captain Manish Kumar has been deployed for sending and coordinating aircraft from India and abroad. The group captain told ABP News that during the Corona epidemic, different airfields from 160 allied countries have so far brought 160 oxygen containers. These countries include Germany, France, Belgium, England, Netherlands, Israel, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, and Australia. Apart from this, 650 containers have been sent from one part of the country to the other till now.

Let us tell you that when the second wave of the corona epidemic knocked in April, there was the production of oxygen in the country, but there were no large-capacity containers and tankers to carry oxygen from one state to another. In such a situation, the Air Force was entrusted with the responsibility of bringing cryogenic containers from abroad. Cargo aircraft such as the C-130J Super-Hercules, IL-76, AN-32, including the C-17 Globemaster of the Air Force, was deployed in this mission.

Group Captain Pranab Sisodia, Commanding Officer (CO) of Skylord Scowdron at Hindon Airbase told ABP News that this was the first mission of its own that the Indian Air Force was going to undertake. Till now, these air force aircraft used to airlift soldiers, tanks, cannons, and military equipment on the battlefield. But oxygen controllers, tanks, cylinders were airlifted for the first time.

Group Captain Sisodia said that the Air Force not only brought empty cryogenic containers from abroad but also took them abroad. Because oxygen-filled containers cannot be airlifted in the aircraft for safety reasons. Therefore, empty containers were taken abroad, and then filled containers were brought into the country by naval warships.

According to the CO of C-17 Globemaster Squadron, the Air Force played a key role in moving empty containers from place to place within the country as well. Because it takes two to three days to take an empty container from the truck to the plant, the same work was completed in just two to three hours by plane. In such a situation, the Air Force has played an important role in rapidly transporting oxygen supplies to different states and hospitals in the country. The Air Force, like Hanumanji, saved the lives of thousands by transporting oxygen in the form of Sanjeevani Booti to the patients.

Air Force Technical Officer, Wing Commander N. Mousle said that during the mission of Oxygene Containers, special care was taken that Air Force pilots, engineers, and other technical staff should protect themselves from Corona. Because in the second wave, a large number of countrymen were in the grip of Corona. In such a situation, saving the countrymen from Corona by protecting themselves from Covid was a big challenge for the Air Force, but only for such difficult conditions, every Air Force is trained.