Navigating an aircraft full of Malaysian nationals who were being evacuated from Egypt during a sand storm called for the Aircraft Captain of the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) C-130, Major Roslin Faradilah Rosman to divert from the original route.
Recalling the harrowing experience when hit by a sand storm in Abu Dhabi, Roslin Faradilah, the only woman pilot assigned to handle the C-130 aircraft in the operation codenamed 'Ops Piramid', said she had to make a decision to divert from the route to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and land at the Al-Ain International Airport, Abu Dhabi.
"The situation then was most horrifying, nothing could be seen ahead, so we had to divert to Al-Ain until the weather improved," she said.
Roslin Faradilah said she flew the aircraft twice between Egypt and Jeddah and each return trip took between six and 10 hours including refuelling.
"For each flight, we take 200 students into the aircraft. The situation was very congested and had presented a challenge to the pilot to fly the aircraft because of the heavy load," said the pilot who had recently married in October last year.
She said it was not the first time that she had gone through such a challenge because she had faced worse situations previously when flying to Pakistan and the Philippines.
Mission Head of the Ops Piramid, Colonel Abdul Mutalib Ab Wahab said all officers and men, especially pilots flying the C-130 aircraft, flew from Egypt to Jeddah and back, exceeding their duty schedule.
"We worked non-stop for 24 hours. That's why we managed to evacuate many Malaysian nationals and students from Egypt and if we were to follow the operation schedule, it would not have been possible for us to evacuate Malaysian nationals quickly," he told reporters when met at the RMAF Air Base in Subang, here today.
Abdul Mutalib said although they did not have adequate rest, this did not deter everyone involved from continuing to evacuate the Malaysian nationals from Egypt.
"They did not have adequate rest and they flew all hours...some flew as early as 2am, sometime at 6am and for as long as the aircraft was flying, they had to work round the clock," he said.
Meanwhile, a third year student of Usuluddin at the University of Al-Azhar, Cairo, Ahmad Shahir Shapie, 24, was prepared to sacrifice his personal safety to save his colleagues.
"For the sake of helping my compatriots, I was prepared to go to the residence of the students nearby in the riot-stricken areas, to take them out to a safe place using my own car," he said.
He said that the situation in Egypt then was very tense with tight security maintained by the police while those involved in the riots had stopped civilians who were crossing their paths.
"I took my friends out to a safer place away from the riots when the situation was not too critical," he added. -BERNAMA
Recalling the harrowing experience when hit by a sand storm in Abu Dhabi, Roslin Faradilah, the only woman pilot assigned to handle the C-130 aircraft in the operation codenamed 'Ops Piramid', said she had to make a decision to divert from the route to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and land at the Al-Ain International Airport, Abu Dhabi.
"The situation then was most horrifying, nothing could be seen ahead, so we had to divert to Al-Ain until the weather improved," she said.
Roslin Faradilah said she flew the aircraft twice between Egypt and Jeddah and each return trip took between six and 10 hours including refuelling.
"For each flight, we take 200 students into the aircraft. The situation was very congested and had presented a challenge to the pilot to fly the aircraft because of the heavy load," said the pilot who had recently married in October last year.
She said it was not the first time that she had gone through such a challenge because she had faced worse situations previously when flying to Pakistan and the Philippines.
Mission Head of the Ops Piramid, Colonel Abdul Mutalib Ab Wahab said all officers and men, especially pilots flying the C-130 aircraft, flew from Egypt to Jeddah and back, exceeding their duty schedule.
"We worked non-stop for 24 hours. That's why we managed to evacuate many Malaysian nationals and students from Egypt and if we were to follow the operation schedule, it would not have been possible for us to evacuate Malaysian nationals quickly," he told reporters when met at the RMAF Air Base in Subang, here today.
Abdul Mutalib said although they did not have adequate rest, this did not deter everyone involved from continuing to evacuate the Malaysian nationals from Egypt.
"They did not have adequate rest and they flew all hours...some flew as early as 2am, sometime at 6am and for as long as the aircraft was flying, they had to work round the clock," he said.
Meanwhile, a third year student of Usuluddin at the University of Al-Azhar, Cairo, Ahmad Shahir Shapie, 24, was prepared to sacrifice his personal safety to save his colleagues.
"For the sake of helping my compatriots, I was prepared to go to the residence of the students nearby in the riot-stricken areas, to take them out to a safe place using my own car," he said.
He said that the situation in Egypt then was very tense with tight security maintained by the police while those involved in the riots had stopped civilians who were crossing their paths.
"I took my friends out to a safer place away from the riots when the situation was not too critical," he added. -BERNAMA
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