Kerala floods: Rahul Gandhi allows air ambulance to fly first

The Congress party chief was going from Chengannur to Alappuzha by chopper when a woman at a nearby relief camp had a cardiac arrest and needed to be taken via air ambulance to the medical college.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi interacts with the flood-affected people at a relief camp in Chengannur Kerala on Tuesday. (Photo | PTI)

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a goodwill gesture, Congress President Rahul Gandhi today allowed an air ambulance with a patient to take off first before his helicopter did from a helipad at a college to Alappuzha.

Soon after boarding the helicopter at Chenganur Christian college, Gandhi noticed the air ambulance parked at the helipad and asked the SPG personnel about it.

They told him that it was to shift a patient with a cardiac problem from a relief camp at Chengannur to Alappuzha Medical College.

"Rahul then asked the SPG personnel to allow the air-ambulance to take off first and waited for 30 minutes to pave way for the air ambulance to fly first," Congress leader and former MLA P C Vishunath said.

Gandhi arrived in Kerala on a two-day visit this morning and spoke to people at relief camps, days after the deadliest deluge in the last 100 years left a trail of destruction and claimed 474 lives in rain-related incidents since May 29 when the monsoon set in over the state.