THE Indian Air Force said that its four evacuation flights with 798 Indians from the Romanian capital Bucharest, Hungary’s Budapest and Polish city Rzeszow landed at the Hindon airbase on Thursday morning. Its first flight carrying 200 people from Bucharest landed at 1.30 am. The second flight brought back 210 Indians from Budapest on Thursday morning. A little while after the second, the IAF’s third evacuation flight arrived at the airbase from Rzeszow with 208 Indians. “The fourth flight of the Indian Air Force C-17 from Bucharest landed at the Hindon airbase in Ghaziabad at 8:15 am. As many as 180 passengers, mostly students, were on board,” the IAF noted in a statement. All four IAF flights were conducted using C-17 military transport aircraft. Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt was present at the tarmac to welcome back the evacuees, the statement noted.

 

“Today, the IAF is operating three more flights to various locations in the neighbourhood of Ukraine towards the effort,” it mentioned. IAF avoided Pak airspace under ‘Operation Ganga’: Under ‘Operation Ganga’, the IAF has avoided the Pakistan airspace to bring back stranded Indian nationals from countries bordering Ukraine as the war entered eighth day. About avoiding the Pakistan airspace, a military source said that the decision was taken by the Government not to take any military favour from Islamabad. What it costs is an additional around 30 minutes of travel. “To fly military aircraft from any nation’s airspace, there is a requirement of various permissions from that country so it was decided to avoid it,” source said.

 

Some students bring their pets on IAF’s evacuation flights: A few students also brought their pet dogs and cats on the Indian Air Force’s evacuation flights that arrived from Ukraine’s neighbouring countries to Hindon air base here on Thursday morning. Yukta, a student from Pune, brought her seven-month-old Siberian Husky puppy Neela on one of the four IAF’s flights that landed here. Commenting on Neela, Minister of State for Civil Aviation V K Singh said on Twitter that I am sure the puppy would have been a well behaved passenger. “Will see both (Yukta and Neela) of you again when I am back. Take care. Jai Hind,” he added. Just like dogs, a few students brought their pet cats too on the IAF flights.