Sunday, January 23 2005 15:23 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Thiruvananthapuram: "It was as good as a war-time operation. We had to fight against heavy odds and we believe we did succeed largely," IAF (Indian Air Force) officers who led 'the operation Sea Waves' to Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Sri Lanka and Maldives in the wake of the tsunami strike on December 26 said.

In one of the biggest peacetime operations, Air Force had flown 678 sorties to the Andamans and Car Nicobar and Sri Lanka, evacuating hundreds of people and delivering mounds of relief supplies to these worst hit places, said the officers during an interaction with mediapersons at the headquarters of the Southern Air Command (SAC) in Thiruvananthapuram. "All the time our personnel had to fight something. Snapped communication and heavily battered run ways were the worst of it," said S Y Savur, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the SAC.

"It was a normal Sunday. We never knew that it was going to be different," said Group Captain Vipin Nair, who co-ordinated the operations to Andaman and Nicobar islands.

"At about 0740 SAC came to know about the earthquake in the Car Nicobar from Air Headquarters. As hours went by messages were received tsunami had hit the southern coast of India, Sri Lanka and Male," Nair said.

Between 8 and 9 hrs (IST), all the aircraft were ready. However, the availability of runway at Car Nicobar was not known till 9 hrs (IST).

The first An-32 got airborne for Car Nicobar at 10 hrs (IST) and the first relief aircraft was airborne within two hours of the warning, he said.