Two children, who were stranded overnight atop a water tank at Siddharth Nagar in Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh, were rescued by an Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopter on Sunday morning.
The children were left stranded on Saturday night after the water tank’s access ladder was damaged. “On a request from the state government authorities, an IAF Mi-17 V5 of Central Air Command (CAC) was deployed to rescue them,” the IAF said.
Videos posted on X by the CAC showed the helicopter hovering metres above the tall water tank and a winch being used to lower IAF personnel atop the tank to pick up the children one by one.
The District Magistrate, Shivsharanappa, was quoted in media reports saying the rescue was conducted in close coordination with the Air Force and the state administration, with continuous communication maintained throughout the planning phase. At around 5.30 in the morning, an Air Force helicopter rescued the two children, and they are safe, he said. The helicopter landed directly in Gorakhpur.
“The rescue mission, yet again, displays the IAF's professionalism and commitment to save lives with a swift response in times of need,” the IAF said on X. There have been numerous occasions in the past where the IAF has deployed Mi-17 helicopters to rescue civilians trapped in floods, landslides, inclement weather or accidents, as well as to carry out other missions in aid to civil authorities like medical evacuation or combating forest fires.
The Mi-17 V5 medium lift helicopter is the workhorse of the IAF’s rotor wing component and these are heavily deployed in logistics operations, especially in the mountainous regions. Some of these have also been modified and retrofitted with missiles and rockets to carry out attack missions.
