People's joy made our efforts worthwhile

After dinner on Dec 5, 2014, my wife dragged me to a shopping mall to buy me a new overcoat - however, while I was trying it on, my base called to alert me about an urgent task. I dropped everything and rushed back.

More than 150,000 people in Male, capital of the Maldives, had been left without drinking water after a fire knocked out their only water treatment plant. Two aircraft from our base had to rush there carrying supplies of water to help tackle the crisis.

I had carried out emergency transportation flights overseas before, but usually I had enough time to prepare. Rough calculations told me that this time I would need to fly over six countries and through seven flight control zones to reach the Maldives.