Biggest Airlift Evacuation In The History Of Mankind

People today might vilify and cry about Air India and their recurring delays, but not many know that when thousands of Indians were trapped in Kuwait during the Gulf war, the Indian government executed the world’s largest air evacuation mission ever. This operation continued for almost sixty days and managed to airlift over 170,000 Indians.

In 1990, under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, Iraq was in debt of the US because of the long-drawn Iran conflict that it had undertaken. Iraq wanted Kuwait to reduce oil production, to create a scarcity of oil leading to increasing oil prices, thereby helping Iraq raise more money. But Kuwait refused, leaving Iraq furious. On 2^nd August, 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. The Iraqi army took over Kuwait within few hours.

Nevertheless, the Kuwaiti royal family managed to flee to Saudi Arabia, leaving the situation orderless. Kuwait was looted and the residents suffered colossal humiliation in the hands of the Iraqi army.

Kuwait was home to around 170,000 Indians and all of them suddenly become bankrupt and homeless. By the heroic of Ranjit Katyal, a well-heeled and influential Indian businessman, who had always seen himself as a Kuwaiti and not Indian, with the assist of the Indian Government, securely evacuated 170,000 Indians back to India.

This operation was effectively accomplished using 488 flights in just 59 days. Air India entered the Guinness Book of World Records for being a civil airline that helped evacuate the maximum number of people ever.

What I personally think is that this part of history has to be in the textbooks. Even commercial pilots entered the war zone and brought people back. It’s a gigantic thing what India did, something which was unbelievable, making it the largest airlift evacuation done by any country.