IAF's C-130J Hercules aircraft successfully carries out maiden night landing at Kargil in Ladakh

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, January 7  

The Indian Air Force has successfully carried out a maiden night landing of a fixed-wing plane at the Advanced Landing Ground at Kargil in Ladakh.

The C-130J Hercules aircraft carried out the landing, the IAF said on Sunday. The plane, sourced from Lockheed Martin US, used its own night landing aids and positioning system to land at the 9,600-foot altitude landing strip at Kargil. The plane had taken off from a base under the Western Air Command.

The IAF used the maiden flight to also practice ‘insertion’ of its commando team known as the ‘the Garuds’.

“This is the first-ever night landing of a fixed-wing plane at Kargil,” an IAF functionary said on Sunday.  

The runaway at Kargil is paved but does not have night landing facility. The runway was built by the Jammu and Kashmir Government in 1996 during the India-Pak clash in Kargil and its vicinity the runway was transferred to the IAF.

Located very close to the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan, it’s an important runaway that can be used to move troops, ammunition, artillery guns and even tanks besides supplies.