At 14:28:04 on May 12, 2008, an earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale hit Wenchuan, Sichuan. The earthquake claimed 69,227 lives, injured 374,643 people, and left 17,923 people missing. Upon learning of the disaster situation, the Blue Sky Rescue Team immediately organized rescue forces to participate in the relief work.
At that time, the newly - established Blue Sky Rescue Team was merely a volunteer team. However, by leveraging their professional skills and equipment, they successfully searched for and rescued 120 people in Guantan Village, Hanwang, and over 80 people in Wufu Village, Anxian. They explored and marked routes using GPS, bringing the first batch of relief supplies to the villagers.
The team collected and summarized a large amount of accurate information, establishing a complete point - to - point material supply information platform. Moreover, they raised and transported supplies, successively entering areas such as Wenchuan, Maoxian, Qingchuan, Mianzhu, Beichuan, and Jiangyou.
During this rescue operation, the Blue Sky Rescue Team demonstrated outstanding organizational and coordination capabilities. They helped transfer relief supplies worth 50 million yuan in the disaster - stricken area, addressed the temporary accommodation issues of over 300,000 people, searched and rescued in more than ten isolated villages, opened up emergency air rescue channels, established sales channels for agricultural products of the disaster victims after the earthquake, and organized the donation of 11,600 quilts for the disaster area before winter. As a result, they were commended with honors of Advanced Individuals and Advanced Collectives in Sichuan's Earthquake Relief Work.
After the May 12th earthquake, Zhang Yong officially established the Blue Sky Rescue Team in Beijing. It was the first Blue Sky Rescue Team in the country.
