The urgent medical flights, requested by the Prefectures of Lecce and Naples, were carried out with a Falcon 50 of the 31st Wing and a C-130J of the 46th Air Brigade.

Within a matter of hours, two Italian Air Force aircraft were scrambled this afternoon to carry out two urgent medical transports for a 15-year-old boy and a 60-year-old man in imminent danger of death.

The boy, admitted to The Vito Fazzi hospital in Lecce and in need of immediate specialist care, he was embarked at the Lecce Galatina military base, home to the Air Force flight school, and urgently transported to Florence by a Falcon 50 from the 31st Wing, for subsequent admission to The Meyer Hospital.

The 60-year-old man, admitted to The Monaldi Hospital in Naples, however, was taken urgently – directly on board an ambulance loaded on board a C-130J of the 46th Air Brigade – at Venice airport, for subsequent admission to The University Hospital of Padua.

emergency flights, requested respectively by Provinces of Lecce and Naples, have been coordinated and arranged by Top Situations Room of the Air Force Command, Rome and from Aerospace Operations Command of Poggio Renatico (FE), the Operations Rooms of the Italian Air Force, which also have the task of activating and managing urgent medical transports, issuing take-off orders for aircraft that the Armed Force keeps ready 24 hours a day, in various bases, for this type of necessity. 

The aircraft, upon completion of their missions, returned to their permanent bases in Ciampino and Pisa to resume readiness duty.

Crews and transport aircraft of the Air Force are operational every single day of the year, 24 hours a day, to ensure, where required and deemed necessary due to urgency, the medical transport of individuals in imminent danger of death, organs or medical teams, or as in this case, individuals needing to be transferred to specialised treatment centres within the national territory. Hundreds of flight hours are carried out every year for this type of intervention, in support of citizens, by aircraft from the 31st Wing of Ciampino, the 14th Wing of Pratica di Mare, and the 46th Air Brigade of Pisa. Where there are specific operational needs, the Air Force also employs helicopters from the 15th Wing of Cervia.