Shenhao UP Lord

Chapter 304 Dangerous
From April to July, the whole situation intensified, and the capital Juba was full of soldiers with live ammunition.The conflict between the factions of the president and the vice president intensified to the peak and the civil war broke out.

And what happened in the next few days left a deep post-traumatic stress disorder on Yu You, so that he didn't want to touch this memory for a long time afterwards.

On July 7th, I just finished my last vacation and landed in South Sudan, when I received emails from the United Nations and the Red Cross.

There are indications that local violence may occur on July 7th, because July 9th is China's Independence Day, so on the 7th, all flight missions are terminated, and everyone is advised to stay in their own residences and not to go out.

In view of the security situation in the location, we made an emergency evacuation plan at the beginning of the mission.

Plan 5: If local turmoil occurs around us, but overall controllable, we use the code name - Let's take a walk.The action corresponding to this code word is that all of us went to the American embassy near the hotel to take shelter, about [-] minutes' walk away, very close.

Plan 10: If the situation gets out of control and we have to evacuate South Sudan, use another code name - Let's go to Lokichokio.Within [-] minutes after the code name is released, everyone must bring their emergency backpacks and belongings and gather in front of the helicopter.

The flight time from Lokichokio to Juba is about 1 hour and 20 minutes*** It needs 600 kilograms of aviation fuel, so after each mission, my colleagues and I will fill up the plane to this value in case of emergency evacuate.

July 7 was no exception. Considering the tension that might arise the next day, after the meeting, we first went to buy enough water and food for 8 crew members to eat for several days, and then arrived at the airport in the afternoon. Fill up the helicopter with fuel.

At 17:10, the helicopter stopped. After the basic inspection, everyone was chatting and covering the plane.Suddenly, there was a rattling sound from the direction of the city center behind us.

Everyone stood there, turning to look in the direction of the sound.I guess everyone is silently thinking like me: "This is definitely not a war, this is definitely not a war, there must be no war, there must be no war..."

At this time, the mechanic Max said that it should be a couple getting married and setting off firecrackers. On the way here just now, I saw someone having a wedding.

As soon as Max finished speaking, there was an overwhelming sound of guns and guns. I knew that this time it must not be firecrackers.Feeling that the situation was not good, I immediately turned around and ran to the car. There was an on-board radio in the car. I picked up the radio and started calling the base camp.

This is Red 304 and 380, we have seven people stuck at airport and I repeated it again.

But there's no one on the radio, just a system voice looping, "To all vehicles, stay where you are. Don't move. It's not safe in the city.

I went back and called the Red Cross operations director. The moment the call was connected, the sound of gunshots and shells shook my phone almost to the ground.He probably didn't hear what I said at all, and he directly replied that this place is more dangerous now, and the airport may be safer, so you just stay at the airport and don't move."

Although separated by a microphone, the other 6 people heard all of them, so caught off guard, the war started.

We were all carrying emergency backpacks, had plenty of water and food, and the helicopter was fully fueled.

Why not evacuate?

Although the helicopter was nearby, we could not evacuate to the safety of Lokichokio without a clear evacuation order from the Red Cross.After all, we have signed a service contract with the International Red Cross, we are service providers, the Red Cross does not allow us to leave, we cannot leave.

And the information we got at that time was that the headquarters was in contact with Geneva, and you were ready to evacuate at any time, and once they agreed, you would evacuate.

But in fact it was later learned that we could never have waited for the order to evacuate.

Later, the Red Cross people told us that they only allowed fixed-wing aircraft to evacuate, and they never considered helicopters.Because the helicopter is their last rescue bottom line.

If there is a large-scale fight, they must rescue the staff scattered in other parts of South Sudan. If the helicopters are all evacuated, these colleagues will be finished.

So in fact, even if we can evacuate, we will be the last group of the entire Red Cross Society to leave. Of course, this is a story for another day.

There was a war in the city, and the airport was taken over by the military. Given the situation at the time, it must be safest to stay nearby, so after discussing with several people, we went to a United Nations operating base next to the airport, and asked the staff there to help us coordinate and move in. A dormitory for peacekeepers.

Nothing happened on the morning of July 7. It was quite quiet. There were only a few military helicopters circling over the airport. We thought the situation had eased?

At 14:00, we received a call from the Red Cross, which said that one of your crews was needed to go to Ball to rescue our colleagues in Ball. "

After waiting for a day, there was no news of the Red Cross's evacuation. Instead, we were asked to send out a crew to complete such a very dangerous task.At that time, no one knew what would happen when flying to Bol. To be more serious, it would be an unpredictable journey of life and death.

After the Red Cross' order came, dissenting voices began to emerge within our team.

There were a total of 7 people present, two captains, two co-pilots, two mechanics, and a coordinating alternate pilot, which was me.

A complete crew needs to be composed of three people. If we want to carry out this mission, we need to elect a captain, a co-pilot and a mechanic.

The first choice was the captain Thomas. He was a Hungarian with no military experience. He had a girlfriend who had been in love for seven or eight years. His original intention of coming here was to accumulate flight time.

Thomas directly said that he quit, and then made a phone call to the general manager of the German company.From this moment on, neither he nor the Red Cross would accept any instructions issued by him, and he resigned.

This was followed by Pedro, a mechanic who encountered this kind of thing only five days after he came to South Sudan. Neither should go, we should tell the Red Cross."

People who have no experience in the military or police are more likely to collapse when encountering war.At this time, the captain of the German Air Force, Michael, stood up and said: Be rational, everyone. In theory, each of us should know what the country is like before signing the contract and deciding to come to South Sudan.

At this time, we can't suddenly drop the pick like a child.We must still complete this task. Those who don’t go can stay, and those who go raise their hands and join me.

Another mechanic Max, a German, came over and said to Pedro: I understand that you don't want to go, after all, you have two children and a wife, if you don't go, I will go for you.

After hearing what he said, my eyes were red at that time, and I felt very moved at that moment.

Then I told everyone: Okay, I am willing to go with Michael and Max as a team.

The thought in my heart is that if everyone doesn't go, it means we lose credibility.

(End of this chapter)