Aircrew overcome harsh conditions

Aircrew from the Chengdu Military Command battled harsh weather and overcame a total lack of ground support on Wednesday to drop essential supplies in the Maoxian county of Sichuan.

"It was a bumpy and pretty dangerous flight," Liu Yingyun, a photographer with the command's publicity department, said of the mission to drop more than 10 tons of relief materials.

"The after-quake weather was abnormal. It was cloudy and the airflow was so strong that when we opened the plane's cargo doors some of the load was thrown to one side of the cabin, slightly injuring a couple of the crew."

The PLA has readied hundreds of cargo aircraft over the past two days to ferry supplies to Sichuan.

In the worst-hit areas, where many of the roads are still closed, both the public and rescue teams are totally dependent on parachute drops, a source with the PLA's General Staff Headquarters told China Daily yesterday.

Although the exact number of missions flown was unavailable at press time, the total will be "record-breaking", the source said.

"All civil flights from the Chengdu Military Command have been ordered to give way to military ones to ensure our aircraft get to the places where they are most needed," the source said.

Wednesday's airdrop mission was the first of its kind for the Chengdu Command. In total it sent five cargo planes and eight helicopters laden with about 100 tons of supplies to Wenchuan, Maoxian, Mianzhu and Pengzhou.

The flight Liu joined was carrying mostly foodstuffs, including milk, bottled water, biscuits, chocolate and instant noodle, as well as medicines and cell phones.

"I know that the things we dropped won't solve all the problems, but I hope they at least provide some comfort for the victims," he said.

With no ground support available, the pilot was guided by the military's global positioning system, Liu said.

Even so, more than 90 percent of the relief materials still landed in their target areas, he said.

The Chengdu Military Command's disaster relief headquarters said it dropped 50,000 bags of rations, 25,000 pairs of rubber shoes, 5,000 quilts and 54,000 items of clothing yesterday

Further airdrop missions will be launched over the coming days, it said.

Despite the determined relief effort, and the dispatch of thousands of extra PLA troops and armed police, 33 towns and villages have still to be reached, the PLA said yesterday.

In an interview with CCTV yesterday afternoon, Qin Guanglong, the deputy political commissar of the PLA's Army Command College, said nine battalions were en route to the isolated areas, mostly on foot but some by boat and helicopter.

"It is estimated the troops will reach all 33 towns and villages by midnight (today)," Qin said.

(China Daily 05/16/2008 page6)