An Italian Air Force C-130 aircraft has embarked the ambulance carrying a child, a paramedic response vehicle and ten healthcare workers

Emergency medical transport from Bari Palese airport to Rome Ciampino airport, for a one-day-old infant, was completed tonight aboard a C-130 aircraft belonging to the 46th Air Brigade of Pisa.

The C-130, the only Italian Air Force aircraft capable of embarking up to two ambulances thanks to its particular dimensions and equipment, departed from Pisa yesterday evening and reached the Apulian airport after about an hour. Here, it promptly loaded the ambulance carrying the child and his parents, as well as a medical car and the medical team—the latter consisting of ten operators (plus the two vehicle drivers)—to provide the boy with adequate assistance during the flight. The young patient, in imminent danger of life, needed to travel while remaining inside the medical vehicle, thus receiving specialist support even during the aerial “run”; hence the request made to the Italian Air Force to activate the special transport.

Previously admitted to the “F. Miulli” Regional General Hospital of Acquaviva delle Fonti in the province of Bari, the child thus arrived at Rome Ciampino military airport at around two o'clock. From here he was able to continue his journey by ambulance, reaching the Bambino Gesù Paediatric Hospital in Rome in a short time to receive specific healthcare. At this point the C-130 was able to return to Pisa, landing shortly afterwards at the military airport of the 46th Air Brigade, where the aircraft is stationed, and resuming operational readiness for the benefit of the community.

The medical flight was requested by the Prefecture of Bari and authorised by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, before being promptly arranged and coordinated by the top-tier Situation Room of the Air Squad Command – 1st Air Region. The latter, an operational room of the Italian Air Force, has among its duties that of activating and managing urgent medical transport, giving the order to take off to the aircraft that the Armed Force keeps ready, 24 hours a day, at various bases for this type of need.

Missions of this type require acting with the utmost promptness, guaranteed by meticulous organisation and well-tried procedures. Hundreds of flight hours are performed each year by Italian Air Force aircraft for urgent medical transport, both of people in imminent danger of life and of medical teams and/or organs, for humanitarian flights or for search and rescue missions. Crews from the 31st Wing of Ciampino, the 15th Wing of Cervia and its subordinate SAR (Search and Rescue) Centres, the 46th Air Brigade of Pisa and the 14th Wing of Pratica di Mare are ready 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, to take off at very short notice, with equipment and personnel capable of operating even in complex weather conditions, to any destination in Italy and abroad.