Leh presented a terrible sight on flood day: IAF fly boys

“Mounting pressure to land and land safely without adding to the disaster was weighing heavy in my mind; but for the Indian Air Force,nothing is impossible,” Reddy said. It was not a routine visit to Leh on the morning of August 7 after Leh had been hit by flash floods. Two futile attempts had been made by the Air Force before Reddy safely landed around 10.45 am the same day.

The maiden attempt was made at 6.15 am when Reddy,in his IL-76,tried to land but could not. “I could only see the clouds; rough weather added to our woes. It had become virtually impossible to get a clear vision so I decided to return,” Reddy said.

The second attempt was made by Wing Commander R S Chaudhary around 7.15 am who made an attempt from Delhi but the result was same,failure. “We all returned and kept ourselves updated with the weather situation in Leh. We received a message that the weather had started improving,” said Group Captain S Srinivasan.

It was Reddy again who led the charge and finally made it,followed by Srinivasan at 10.50 am in his IL-76 and four AN-32s. “Why is the Indus looking like the Ganga? I asked myself when I reached,” said Srinivasan. Highlighting the difficulty which they had to face while making a landing at such a high altitude,Srinivasan said,“The difference between flying at Leh and flying at any normal station is just like asking a 50-year-old to compete against a 25-year-old in a marathon”.

“Though we could not get time to interact with most of the victims,but one could easily see that they were awestruck. Their helplessness motivated us to put in our best effort to bring medicines,food and other disaster relief equipment for them” said Reddy.

Highlighting how clouds blurred his vision,A K Yadav,Navigator,said: “It was extremely difficult and dangerous. With so much of equipment,army trucks and JBCs landing,the plane becomes altogether difficult at Leh.” For more than two weeks,the pilots had only one fourth of the runway to utilise.