India says Il-76MD landed at 4,154 meters — Dawn

The Indian Air Force announced the successful landing of a heavy Il-76MD military transport aircraft at the Nyoma airfield in the Ladakh region, near the border with China. The aircraft landed at an altitude of 4,154 meters above sea level.

Statement on the record landing

According to Dawn, the Indian Air Force called this landing the highest-altitude landing in the history of Il-76MD operations worldwide. The four-engine aircraft of Russian origin is also known in India as Ganjraj.

Footage released by the Indian Air Force shows the aircraft landing and taking off from a runway surrounded by barren mountains. The airfield is located in a high-altitude cold desert, where temperatures can fall to minus 20 degrees Celsius.

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Airfield near the Chinese border

The military airfield in Nyoma was completed last year as part of the expansion of military infrastructure in Ladakh. This was intensified after a border clash between India and China in 2020, which killed 20 Indian and four Chinese servicemen.

Since then, contacts between the countries at the highest political level have gradually resumed, but mistrust persists between the sides. India and China maintain troops along an approximately 3,500-kilometer high-altitude border in the Tibet area due to unresolved territorial disputes.