NEW DELHI: The US used its military C-17 strategic lift aircraft to deport 205 Indian illegal immigrants, which left San Antonio, Texas for Amritsar. The Trump administration has also used the military aircraft to deport illegal migrants to Guatemala, Peru and Honduras.The deportation flight to India will be the farthest of the destinations to send the military aircraft. According to US officials, use of the military transport aircraft for deportation is costlier. The US officials, quoted by Reuters, pegged the estimated cost of this flight at least $4,675 per migrant.This is even higher than that of a commercial charter flight operated by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the officials said.Coming to the cost of operating the IAF’s C-17 aircraft, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in 2016 calculated it to be Rs 43.19 lakh per hour. The estimate was noted under its audit report titled ‘Acquisition and operation of C-17 Globemaster III aircraft’.The IAF has been using the C-a7s for multiple operations including those for the long haul flights. One of the long distance flights was in 2021 when the force had pressed in its C-17 Globemaster for a long haul flight. It completed a 35-hour gruelling duty cycle to and from the United Kingdom to bring home oxygen cylinders in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis.As reported by this newspaper, the two aircraft flew nonstop for 11 hours and 30 minutes to reach the UK and airlifted critical life support equipment. They carried 37 tonnes of equipment. Additional crew members are part of such missions.
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