Three Russian Il-76 planes headed for Indonesia on Tuesday, carrying field hospital equipment and medics for rescuing the victims hit by tsunami, according to the Itar-Tass news agency.

It was the second group of planeloads flying to Indonesia. The first group of three Il-76 planes dispatched for Indonesia on Sunday are on their way back to Russia, Air Force press service head Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky said.

All in all, 10 flights are necessary for the delivery of hospital equipment and medical personnel, according to him.  

On Tuesday, another Il-76 transport plane carrying over 38 tons of humanitarian cargoes to Sri Lanka, landed at the airport of the capital Colombo at 3:00 p.m. Moscow time (1200GMT), the press service of the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations told Itar-Tass.

The humanitarian cargoes delivered to Lanka, part of them supplied by Belarus, include tents, blankets, bedding, water purification installations and flour.

Russia is planing to dispatch an air-borne hospital of the ministry and a specialized team of the Russian Ministry of Health and Social Development to Thailand by two flights of the emergencies ministry on the night to Jan. 14.

Two more planes of the emergencies ministry will fly to Sri Lanka on the night to Jan. 16. A field hospital of the Zashchita All-Russian center of medicine of catastrophes and a specialized team of the Ministry of Health and Social Development will be flown to Colombo.

Five such teams are ready for being dispatched to the area of the natural disaster, each of them consisting of 30-35 persons, Itar-Tass quoted Viktor Beltsov, the director of the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations, as reporting.

Yuri Brazhnikov, the director of the international activity department of the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations said that nearly 150 tons of humanitarian aid were flown to Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia from Dec. 27 to Jan. 10.

(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2005)