IAF plane flies 10-hour marathon sortie from Srinagar to Thiruvananthapuram

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 4

Yesterday when the Indian Air Force was carrying out countrywide fly pasts, a transport plane of the IAF was on a marathon 10-hour nonstop sortie from Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir to Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

A C-130-J ‘Super Hercules’ special operations plane took off from Srinagar and overflew Chandigarh, Delhi, Bhopal, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Bangalore and  Kanyakumari among other places, completing a 5,004 km nonstop sortie in 10 hours and 10 minutes, without refuelling and while carrying three tonnes of material  needed to fight COVID-19.

The C-130-J is a turboprop plane and flies and speeds slower than jet engine planes which travel at some 700 km per hour.

Also the C-130J was not at a cruising altitude, the task for the pilots was flying at just 500 metres for display purposes over major cities.

This meant after carrying out display flying over Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh, the central vista of Delhi or the Marine drive of Mumbai, the plane gained altitude and again on reaching a city, descended to a lower altitude.

The distance between Srinagar and Thiruvananthapuram is some 3500 km.

The C-130J used by India has ‘washroom’ for pilots for such long haul flights.

The flight was part of the countrywide appreciation of those fighting the coronavirus.

Yesterday India conducted several flypasts, including those by fighter jets and helicopters, showering flower petals over hospitals.

The 10-hour long sortie is still short of the 13 hour 31 minute marathon the same plane did in 2017.

US giant the Lockheed Martin makes the C-130-J and the first was inducted by India in 2011.

India has based a part of its fleet in eastern India and is part of the Mountain Strike Corps.