The last adventure I will describe about Suru valley is about the rescue of a French couple from Zanskar in winter. It was in the last week of December that we got a call from Zanskar about a French couple stuck in a village on the other side of Pensi la due to its closure.

The problem was with the male member who was having severe chest problems and was vomiting blood. He needed to be rescued immediately. As the pilots did not know exact location of the place, I was requested to accompany the sortie as a guide to save time. It was a very cloudy day and earlier it had been raining. We took off in clouds and headed for the Gund valley which is the normal flight approach for helicopters to Ladakh. Helicopters are supposed to fly in the valleys and not allowed to cross ridges to avoid updraft and downdraft usually present at these spots. The entire Gund valley was covered in clouds but these were quite high and we could fly comfortably. The aircraft was being piloted by Flt Lt Kulwant Singh. He is the most dare devil type of pilot I have ever seen. While we were nearing Zoji la, I asked Kulwant if we could have a peep at Amarnath cave. He readily agreed and we diverted few minutes towards the cave but were unable to enter the valley near Sangam due to high winds coming out of there.

We decided to fly back on our course. At Kargil we refuelled and had a cup of tea. It was very cloudy and windy also. It was probably the bleakest weather I had seen in this area. We were told that our total flying time would be one and a half hours and our total endurance was three and a half hours. We were asked to be careful and avoid further flight if the weather goes worse. The flight was smooth as we cleared Panikhar and crossed over to Parkachik. The clouds were touching mountain tops. The entire landscape below was white due to heavy snowfalls the area had experienced some days earlier. While flying near Parkachik we could see a number of Ibex running over a mountain ridge. We flew past Rangdom Gompa towards Pensi la. The pass was clear and the clouds were higher up. While flying over the area we saw a number of trucks stuck in deep snow which had been left to remain there by their owners for the duration of winter. Immediately after crossing the pass we were surprised to see bright sun. The entire Zanskar area was sunny. After flying for about ten minutes we located the village where the couple was supposed to be camping. There were a couple of coloured tents there. Kulwant landed the aircraft nearby and I asked the couple to get in as we had to rush back to avoid closing bad weather. Without switching off engines, Kulwant stopped the rotors so that the couple could get in and also bring in their rucksacks. It must have taken us hardly five minutes and we took off again towards Pensi la. As we reached the pass, there was a big surprise for us! The clouds had descended almost to the base of the pass. Kulwant taking his bearings and the altitude headed straight over the top of the pass. We could only see mist while flying through the clouds. It was very dark. I was guiding Kulwant by watching the landmarks below. I could see the trucks stuck up and guided him ahead. He could see nothing. I gave him my French special anti-fog glasses which help one to see clearly in fog and mist.

I had been using these in Gulmarg during skiing and had purchased these during my visit to Chamonix in France. We were able to cross the pass safely and headed towards Rangdom Gompa and crossed it. However, the Gompa was on our left as we entered a valley. I immediately told Kulwant to back off as we were entering a wrong valley. He made a circle and flew over the Monastery. I told him that we should land on top of the Monastery and ask for correct directions. He disagreed saying the Monastery may collapse and hovered again. Suddenly we saw a long line of lamas some distance from the Monastery. We headed near them and tried to land but there was so much snow dust created by the helicopter that we could see nothing. The snow must have been at least ten feet deep with powder over it. After another circle of the area we saw the lamas had in the meantime beaten a patch of snow with their feet and put a sign H in the middle to show us a helipad. We straight landed there and to our surprise found it was heavily snowing. Inside the helicopter it appeared as mist. The lamas came near us and offered us hot tea. It was Losar, the Buddhist New Year, and that was the reason for all of them getting assembled there. They had seen us go in the wrong valley and had prepared the helipad to allow us to land. It was so thoughtful of them. After getting the correct directions we flew off and from here onwards followed the River Suru. The rest of the flight to Kargil was smooth compared to crossing of Pensi la and we landed there after half an hour.

No sooner had we landed that everyone rushed towards the aircraft. The officer in charge told us that we had been overdue by an hour and a call for a missing aircraft had been given by the Air Headquarter. He wanted us to speak to Group Captain Mullick, the Chief Operations Officer at Srinagar who had been constantly on the phone. We contacted him and told him that we had been forced to land in Rangdom which had delayed us. As there was no high frequency radio in the aircraft so we could not inform the base. We got a severe reprimand for taking such a great risk strictly against rules but were let off as the intention was life saving! The Air Force stations at Leh, Srinagar, and Udhampur had been alerted for possible search of a missing aircraft. Our appearance made them call off the search. After an hour we were back in Srinagar and sent the French couple to hospital for medical assistance. It was the most exciting aerial adventure I have had which had almost cost us our lives but satisfaction of having brought succour to someone in trouble made the venture worthwhile! The next few episodes would be about my adventures in Gilgit-Hunza across the border.

(Concluded)