PAF at the forefront of coronavirus relief operation

Bilal Afridi

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) has been assigned the onerous responsibility of airlifting relief goods and medical equipment from the brotherly country, China, to help fight coronavirus pandemic in the country.

In this regard, a PAF IL-78 aircraft laden with relief goods from China landed at PAF Base Nur Khan early Sunday morning. The relief goods have been donated by the Chinese government to Pakistan to help the ‘strategic cooperative partner’ effectively fight coronavirus outbreak. The relief goods weighing 14 tons of cargo include ventilators, N95 masks and medical protective gear.

This was one of the many relief flights undertaken by PAF in the past couple of months. It is worth mentioning here that Pakistan had also dispatched relief goods to the brotherly country via a PAF aircraft when the deadly coronavirus pandemic broke out in the city of Wuhan.

This was the third of the series of relief flights undertaken by the PAF transport aircraft from China.

During the previous two relief sorties, 16 tons of medical supplies were airlifted by PAF aircraft.

The Pakistan Air Force has always led from the front in the hour of need whenever called upon by the nation, both during peace and war. The PAF transport fleet has a remarkable history of being the first to respond in the aftermath of natural disasters and national emergencies whether within the country or abroad.

The PAF also undertakes large-scale relief operations in the advent of any earthquakes in the country by not only carrying out aerial delivery of the relief goods to the victims in tough terrains but also evacuating the affected people to safer places.

On such occasions, the Air Ambulance of the PAF is used to shift seriously injured persons from affected areas to the nearby hospitals.

On several occasions, the PAF teams have also rescued tourists stranded in mountainous areas amid heavy snowfall.