At noon on November 6, a Yak-130 aircraft of the 940th Air Force Regiment, Air Force Officer School, had an accident and could not land after completing a training flight at Phu Cat airport. The aircraft, piloted by Colonel Nguyen Van Son (front cabin) and Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Hong Quan (rear cabin), took off at 9:55 a.m. and at 10:38 a.m., the pilots discovered that the aircraft's landing gear did not open and attempted to release the landing gear in an emergency but failed. With the commander's permission, the two pilots parachuted at 10:51 a.m. at the TB2 Shooting Range, Tay Son, Binh Dinh. And upon receiving information that rescue was needed, Viettel immediately deployed technical measures to search for the two pilots in distress.
At 7:57 p.m., authorities found Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Hong Quan (middle) in a mountainous area of Tay Phu commune.
From the suspected area, the team analyzed the subscription history, predicted the route, and identified the broadcasting stations near the landing area of the two pilots. However, the landing location of both pilots was deep in the primeval forest, with hidden terrain and many valleys, making it challenging to determine the location. At this time, the plan to adjust the antenna and increase the capacity of the broadcasting stations was considered. Viettel's technical team had to implement technical solutions such as: Rotating and adjusting the antenna's direction and angle, increasing the maximum transmission capacity of the serving stations, and at the same time utilizing low-frequency broadcasting solutions to prioritize increasing coverage in mountainous areas and the location where the pilots could have landed before.
At around 10pm, authorities found pilot Colonel Nguyen Van Son (middle).
Through analysis, the Viettel team determined that the two pilots landed in two different directions, so they had to continuously adjust to find the broadcasting station with the signal. After about 15-20 minutes from the time the team adjusted, the first good news was returned, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Hong Quan - one of the two pilots - was able to contact the unit by mobile phone, at about 4:30 p.m. the same day.
Mr. Nguyen Quang An (far left) and the rescue team found Colonel Nguyen Van Son.
Meanwhile, finding the location of Colonel Nguyen Van Son was more difficult because the landing site of this pilot was hidden deep, and the signal was difficult to reach due to many trees and rocks blocking the way. After many attempts to navigate the coverage area and continuously call Colonel Son's phone, the technical team finally received a response signal at 6:45 p.m. From these calls, Viettel's technical team continued to instruct the two pilots to use 4G data waves to send coordinates to the unit. At the scene, the rescue team quickly came up with a plan to organize a rescue approach.
It is known that the rescue support team of Viettel Construction Binh Dinh branch consists of two comrades, a Station technician and a Wire technician. Upon receiving orders from their superiors, the two comrades "immediately" moved to support the search and rescue work. "At that time, around 4 p.m., while installing the broadcasting station in Binh Nghi commune, Tay Son district, I received a call from the district's Technical Director (GDKT) and I immediately set out to receive the task." Mr. Nguyen Quang An, a direct rescue worker shared.
As a navigator, every 20-30m, An checked the coordinates to make sure the group was going in the right direction. Because in the dark, the forest path was already dense and difficult to travel, and even more difficult when it rained heavily, the wind was strong, and the rocks were slippery. Above, two locals were leading the way, holding flashlights to find the way.
At around 8pm the same day, Lieutenant Colonel Quan was found on a mountain in the Ham Ho area, Tay Phu commune, Tay Son district, about 10km from the parachute drop zone. Sharing more about the rescue process, Mr. An said that after finding Lieutenant Colonel Quan, the whole team was exhausted, the phones they brought were almost out of battery, the team considered letting another team come in to rescue Mr. Son. But when checking the coordinates, they discovered that Mr. Son was not far away, about 600m, the whole team was determined to rescue the remaining pilot. One group was divided to take Mr. Quan out of the forest, the other group continued to search.
Although on the map, Mr. Son's hiding place was very close, in reality, it took the rescue team another 2 hours to reach the correct location. The mountain road was slippery due to heavy rain, the whole team had to grope around in the dark, many times slipping and falling or crawling, clinging to the ground. The raincoats they brought were almost torn by the trees, some had to take them off and continue walking in the rain.
"We told ourselves we didn't want to make Mr. Son wait any longer, and we didn't know if he was injured anywhere, so we encouraged each other to keep going," Mr. An recounted.
All efforts were rewarded when at around 10:20 p.m., the rescue team found Colonel Son. As they neared the location, everyone called out Son's name. The moment they heard the pilot's voice respond, the whole team burst into tears and rushed to the source of the sound.
The location where the two pilots were found is only 1km apart.
After nearly 8 hours of walking in the rain, deep into the rugged rocky mountains, the rescue team completed the mission. “My daily work helped me gain some experience about the terrain of the area and the operation of the stations deep in the mountains. But this ‘mountain crossing’ was truly memorable because the whole team had to wade through the forest in the heavy rain, with no trails to follow. When I rescued both of them, I was really happy, forgetting all the hardships,” An said. Coming out of the forest at midnight, An immediately called his leader to report that the mission was complete and the whole team was safe. At 3am on November 7, An returned home.
According to a representative of Viettel Group, the task of ensuring communication in natural disaster prevention and rescue is one of Viettel's important annual tasks. From participating in storm and flood response campaigns, such as the landslide in Lang Nu (Lao Cai) during storm Yagi in September, Viettel's technical team has gained a lot of experience in handling and finding solutions in the shortest time.
The technical staff's familiarity with the terrain characteristics and station design in mountainous, remote and isolated areas also plays an important and decisive role. In particular, the design of mobile stations is calculated so that in addition to ensuring 4G waves for residents, it also ensures the widest coverage for inter-district and inter-provincial routes and rescue situations./.