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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 2267.PDF
6io PLIGHT HIMALAYAN AIRLIFT Tales of Not-always-fair Kashmir, where Peaks under 10,000ft Count as Foothills By Capt. P. J. MASSEY ORIENT AIRWAYS, Pakistan's nationalized airline, operate entirely within thatcountry's borders. Among the main airports which they use are those at Karachi, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Peshawar; the last-named—an R.P.A.F. airfield—is the basefor the remarkable operation described in this article. The pilots who fly the Orient Dakotas include Britons, Australians, New Zealanders, Americans, and a few Poles andothers from the European Continent. Among them is the author, who joined the com- pany in 1948 and has recently returned to Britain after 2,500 hours' flying on the GilgitAirlift. His 24 years of flying include two spells of R.A.F. service (1927-33 and 1939-45); he has Studied as a doctor, and done aerial-survey work in South Arabia and Somaliland. SINCE the commencement of the Kashmir Incident anunorthodox but unquestionably efficient airlift has beenmaintained across a remote part of the Himalayas, with the mud-hut villages of Gilgit and Skardu as the objectives of the aircraft engaged. But for the Dakotas which roar back and forth between Peshawar (the base of operations) and the above-mentioned villages, half a million people would have faced possible starvation. These two places are keypoints on the caravan routes that serve a Himalayan area about the size of Europe. Before the Kashmir Incident supplies reached them along the mule-caravan route from India, and by way of other (yak) tracks from the U.S.S.R. and Red China. But the cease-fire line through Kashmir cut these trade routes from India and, with the closing of the route from Red China and the U.S.S.R., supplies had to be ferried in by air to Gilgit and Skardu, for distribution to outlying settlements by yak, camel, donkey, mule and back-packing coolies. Flying in this part of the world offers considerably greater problems than those presented by airlifts elsewhere, not excluding that across the famous Hump from Burma into China during the war. Aircrew in this Gilgit Airlift (as it is now called) do not have the benefit of oxygen, in spite of the fact that they are required to fly at heights exceeding 20,000ft. There are no meteorological facilities, or radio aids; and no maintenance facilities at Gilgit or Skardu, where the airstrips are hemmed in by mountains. Maps of the area, too, are inaccurate. We normally fly at 12,000ft to 15,000ft up the valleys, but in bad weather we may go down to within a few hundred feet of the Indus, or climb to as much as 22,000ft. I have myself climbed out from Gilgit at 22,000ft. Often the valleys narrow The Gilgit Airlift area, with spot heights of airfields and some of the principal peaks. Until flying started in this area, hundreds of the peaks had never before been seen by man and they are therefore un-named. Capt. Massey and his fellow-pilots have given names to some of them, such as "The Fan" (20,000fc), between Astor and Skardu. The whole of the shaded area lies above 10,000ft. >/.V 4 A.VG YASIN SWAT STATE STATE Afj,B STATE Alt. Haramosh (24,700ft) seen from the south—a photograph taken on the 14,000-ft climb to cross the Sarkur Pass. Turn right (soys the author) up the valley for Skardu; turn left for Gilgit. so that a turn would not be possible as, at 10,000ft, both engines are on full power already; and mountains rise to heights of up to 28,000ft within a mile or two of the tracks. At one point on the Himalayan Airlift one can see seven or eight of the world's highest mountains—Nanga Parbat (26,660ft), a great granite massif that rises in leaping walls; K2, or Mount Godwin Austen, the second highest peak in the world, only 1,000ft lower than Everest itself; Haramosh (24,270ft), Rakoposhi (25,500ft)—all of them to the north-east. To the north are the Great Karakoram and Hindu Kush ranges, with peaks rising to 25,000ft. Anything under 15,000ft is referred to as "the hills," and the range upon range of 10,000-ft peaks are dismissed as "foothills." Over and through this wild and inhospitable country the Dakotas of Orient Airways fly from two to ten trips a day, carrying food, machinery and passengers between Peshawar (in the North-West Territories of Pakistan) and the remote villages of Gilgit and Skardu. I, myself, have flown 1,010 trips on this "run" and, all told, the better part of 5,000 tons of freight have been delivered, including a small steam-roller and several jeeps. When the first jeep was landed at Skardu the local natives thought it was some new kind of animal. Indeed, our request for water with which to top-up the radiator was answered with a bowl of milk and a truss of hay ! The only flat area for the construction of an airstrip lay across the local cemetery, and here the construction engineers (who reached Skardu by caravan) faced their first difficulty : the local people refused to allow their dead to be disturbeu. However, the problem was overcome by suggesting that they would not be inconvenienced if the strip was laid over tie
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