Three Russian Il-76 planes headed for Indonesia on Tuesday, carrying field
hospital equipment and medics for rescuing the victims hit by tsunami, according
to the Itar-Tass news agency.
It was the second group of planeloads flying to Indonesia. The first group of
three Il-76 planes dispatched for Indonesia on Sunday are on their way back to
Russia, Air Force press service head Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky said.
All in all, 10 flights are necessary for the delivery of hospital equipment
and medical personnel, according to him.
On Tuesday, another Il-76 transport plane carrying over 38 tons of
humanitarian cargoes to Sri Lanka, landed at the airport of the capital Colombo
at 3:00 p.m. Moscow time (1200GMT), the press service of the Russian Ministry
for Emergency Situations told Itar-Tass.
The humanitarian cargoes delivered to Lanka, part of them supplied by
Belarus, include tents, blankets, bedding, water purification installations and
flour.
Russia is planing to dispatch an air-borne hospital of the ministry and a
specialized team of the Russian Ministry of Health and Social Development to
Thailand by two flights of the emergencies ministry on the night to Jan. 14.
Two more planes of the emergencies ministry will fly to Sri Lanka on the
night to Jan. 16. A field hospital of the Zashchita All-Russian center of
medicine of catastrophes and a specialized team of the Ministry of Health and
Social Development will be flown to Colombo.
Five such teams are ready for being dispatched to the area of the natural
disaster, each of them consisting of 30-35 persons, Itar-Tass quoted Viktor
Beltsov, the director of the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations, as
reporting.
Yuri Brazhnikov, the director of the international activity department of the
Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations said that nearly 150 tons of
humanitarian aid were flown to Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia from Dec. 27 to
Jan. 10.