This video clip shows China Air Force airdrop relief goods.
The followings are English translation:
0:00 We are in Tai ping Si Airport of Chengdu, you can see
two Ilyshin-76 airplanes. One of them will take off soon.
After a moment, we
will ride on second plane piloted by Captain Qiu to go to
Wenchuan County for
airdrop soon. Ilyshin airplane has two characters. The first
one is that it is
usually to be used for high attitude airdrop. Captain Qiu's
airplane will do
the airdrop in 5800 meter above the ground. The second
character is that it can
airlift large amount of goods. So it can airdrop large amount
of goods into disaster
area.
0:32: Right now, it is May 15th 7:30 pm, after we took off,
we have been waiting two hours for airdrop, because there are
a lot of other
helicopters on the sky of Wenchuan. They are busy for
airdrop. So our big plane
must wait them to finish their job before we head to
Wenchuan. If we count from
May 15th 2 am, this is fifth airdrop mission of this crew.
Our current
destination is Wenchuan County. Now, we are flying over some
mountain with
height between 4000 meter and 5000 meters. The reason that
this plane is flying
as high as 5800 meter is too avoid these high mountains. But
Ilyshin plane usually
airdrop at 600 meter for normal tasks. This time, we are
flying almost 6000
meters above the ground, which are 10 ten times higher than
attitude Ilyshin plane
usually is. This greatly reduces the precision of airdrop. So
in order to
airdrop the relief good precisely into the disaster hit area
like Wenchuan, the
pilots must do the accurate calculation. And the difficulty
of flying also
increases greatly. The topography of this region is very
complex. Right now, it
is May. There is still a lot of snow on the mountain top.
There are only 4
minutes away before airdrop.
2:56. Now is 8:30 pm. This crew used 1 hour to airdrop 52
items of relieve goods to disaster area. Their total weight
is about 5 tons.
They included water, instant noodles, and various foods.
There will be more
airplanes heading to disaster hit area.
3:32 Because the task and routes of relief troop was
constantly
changing, so our journalists made many attempts before we can
reach them.
Finally, we have news about them at May 15th 6 pm.
3:40: I want to know what happened to 15 paratroopers under
your command after they landed yesterday.
3:50: It is very safe. Both people and goods.
3:52: Excellent!!! Let me ask your second question, what do
you plan to do next?
3:58: According we knew, there are no other troops reached
here. There are great difficulties for people's life in here.
4:05: May 14th 8 am, 100 special paratroop gather to Tai ping
Si Airport of Chengdu. They did a 3 hours of intense preparation on
goods and equipments. They took off at 11 am. Their task is to
conduct surveillance on the region centered at Mao country which
also includes Wenchuan County, Li country and Beichuan County.
Those counties suffered most in the earthquake and are difficult
for other land troop to reach them. Because Mao County has complex
topography, there are terrains, which are higher than 5000 meters,
surround it, so air force decides to do the parachuting at 4000
meter above the ground. This poses a great challenge to pioneer
parachuting team and pilots of airplane. This is the first time
ever in air force's history that parachuting is done in critical
state which is without land guidance, without detail landmark, and
without oxygen. After 10 to 20 minutes, 15 paratroopers land on
ground and use the satellite phone to send back the information on
disaster in Mao County around 3 pm. At May 15th 2 am, air force
uses their information to carry out the largest airdrop of food and
medicines since rescue mission began.
In response to assignment:
China earthquake