Eastern Air Command Chief felicitates air warriors part of Deoghar rescue operation

Eastern Air Commander Air Marshal DK Patnaik on Friday felicitated the Air Warriors who took part in the Deoghar rescue operation, where three people died in a cable car accident which took place earlier this month in Jharkhand.

On April 13, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also lauded the personnel involved in rescue operations at Deoghar.

During his virtual interaction with them, PM Modi had said, "For three days, our forces worked round the clock and completed a difficult rescue operation and saved the lives of many countrymen. I consider this to be the blessings of Baba Vaidyanath ji."

"The nation is proud that it has capable forces in the form of Army, Air Force, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and Police that has the strength to bring out the people from every crisis. We too learnt lessons from the accident (Trikut ropeway) and rescue mission. Your experience will be useful for the future," he added.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) on April 12, completed the rescue of 35 stranded people from the Trikut Hills Ropeway Service in the Deoghar district. Three people died in the accident.

The operation was carried out in close coordination with National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), local administration and Army. IAF utilised two Mi-17 V5, one Mi-17, one Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) and one Cheetah to fly more than 26 hours in this effort.

On April 10, some cable cars collided on a ropeway at Trikut hills close to Baba Baidyanath Temple. The IAF received the request for the rescue of 59 tourists stuck in the ropeway service.

Meanwhile, Jharkhand's Disaster Management Minister Banna Gupta admitted that "there have been some lapses" from the state government in the Deoghar cable-car mishap.

( With inputs from ANI )