Indian Air Force in mission mode to transport Oxygen tankers—See pics

Indian Air Force (IAF) has swung into action and has been on mission mode to transport oxygen to the states which need it the most. On Saturday, India's Covid 19 cases tally reached 3.46 lakh mark with several states complaining of lack of oxygen supply. The government has roped in IAF to ramp up oxygen supply and cut travel time to meet this exigency.  

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Meanwhile, Maharashtra government will send four empty tankers to Jamnagar from Pune by IAF cargo planes to bring liquid medical oxygen to the state on Saturday, a senior official told PTI. 

The first Air Force cargo plane carrying two 15 ton capacity empty oxygen tankers will take off from Pune airport for Jamnagar at 8.30 am, while the second one will leave at 11.30 am, the official said. 

"The tankers will return to Maharashtra by road after being loaded with liquid medical oxygen there. They cannot be brought back by plane due to safety issues," he said. 

As the demand for medical oxygen has skyrocketed due to a huge surge in COVID-19 infections, Air Force planes are being used to ferry empty tankers for refill. 

Earlier, transport plane on Friday carried an empty oxygen tanker from Indore in Madhya Pradesh to Jamnagar in neighbouring Gujarat, as per PTI. 

After refilling, the 30 metric tonne-capacity tanker will return to Indore by road, he added. 

"The IAF plane landed at Indore airport at 3:15 pm and left for Jamnagar with the tanker soon after," the official said. 

The airlifting of empty tankers to oxygen filling sites using IAF planes was started after Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan urged the Union government to help his state fight a surge in COVID-19 cases, he said. 

As the rear portion of the tanker could not enter the plane's cargo hold properly, the tanker's mudguard was removed, said Indore airport director Aryama Sanyal. 

The aircraft will return to Indore on Saturday to transport another empty tanker, Sanyal added. 

Rohan Saxena, the district official overseeing the operation, said an oxygen tanker takes 20 hours to reach Jamnagar from Indore by road, while the plane will cover the distance in an hour. 

Earlier on Friday, the IAF also airlifted big, empty oxygen tankers and containers to various filling stations across the country to speed up the distribution of the much-needed medical oxygen in treating COVID-19 patients. 

Officials said the IAF also airlifted doctors and nursing staff from Kochi, Mumbai, Visakhapatnam and Bengaluru for various hospitals in Delhi, besides transporting essential medicines as well as equipment required by the designated COVID hospitals in various parts of the country. 

The officials said the IAF deployed its transport aircraft C-17, C-130J, IL-76, An-32 and Avro while keeping its Chinook and Mi-17 helicopters on standby. 

The defence ministry said the IAF's C-17 and IL-76 heavy-lift aircraft have started airlifting big, empty oxygen tankers from their place of use to filling stations across the country to speed up the distribution of medical oxygen. 

"In addition to this, the C-17 and IL-76 have transported a large quantity of load comprising bio-safety cabinets and autoclave machines for the setting up of an additional COVID test facility at Leh (in Ladakh)," it added. 

The oxygen containers will be transported by road or rail to various hospitals once they are refilled, the officials said. 

Containers filled with oxygen are generally not transported on board military aircraft as they are considered combustible and may pose a risk to the planes. 

The officials said eight empty cryogenic oxygen containers were airlifted from Begumpet in Telangana to Bhubaneshwar by a C17 aircraft while one empty cryogenic container was transported from Indore to Jamnagar. 

Personnel and equipment of the IAF Rapid Action Medical Team (RAMT) were airlifted from Jorhat in Assam to Hindan in Ghaziabad by a C130 transport aircraft. 

The ministry said the IAF's transport aircraft and helicopter assets are on standby to be deployed at a short notice. 

"Indian Air Force has swung into action by carrying out sorties from various parts of the country to airlift oxygen containers, cylinders, essential medicines, equipment required for setting up and sustaining COVID hospitals and facilities," the ministry said in a statement.