Tuesday, January 26, 2016

A unique Felicitation by Air India!

A unique Felicitation by Air India!
New Delhi: In a rare gesture, Air India felicitated on 26th January 2016, its employees who took part in evacuations during emergencies.

Ashwani Lohani, CMD Air India who remembered the 1990 Kuwait evacuation said “it was a national mission &AI played a very big role in it’.

The 1990 airlift of Indians from Kuwait was carried out from 13 August to 11 October 1990 after the Invaion of Kuwait. Air India  holds the Guinness Book of World Records] for the most people evacuated by a civil airliner as a result of this effort. The operation was carried out during the Persian Gulf War  in 1990 to evacuate Indian expatriates from Kuwait and Iraq. It is believed to be the largest civilian evacuation in history.

The Indians based in Kuwait also helped in the evacuation efforts. The invasion of Kuwait started on 1 August 1990, and within two days of intense combat, most of the Kuwait Armed Forces were either overrun by the Iraqi Republican Guard or fell back to neighboring Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The Emirate of Kuwait was annexed, and Saddam Hussein announced a few days later that it was the 19th province of Iraq. More than 1,70,000 Indians were stranded on Kuwait soil.

No comments:

Advertisement