DUPLICE HEALTH TRANSPORT FROM SARDEGNA TO ROMA

Two children were transported to Rome on two Air Force flights. The transport requests, necessary to ensure immediate specialized medical care for the patients, were sent by the respective hospitals to the Cagliari Prefecture. The serious condition of the first patient, assisted during the flight by the medical team of the neurosurgery unit at the Brotzu Hospital in Cagliari, did not allow the second patient, who was accommodated in a special thermal cradle, to be transported on the same aircraft at the same time. The Situation Room of the Air Force Command immediately made available another aircraft for the second patient. After landing at Cagliari Elmas Airport, the two Falcon aircraft of the 31st Air Wing took off with the patients aboard, heading for the capital, where they arrived after about 45 minutes of flight. Subsequently, the patients were transported from Ciampino Airport to their respective hospitals on board ambulances. The aircraft of the 31st Ciampino Squadron are used for state transport and for public service missions, such as the emergency medical transport of sick people, severely traumatized people, and organs for transplantation, as well as for interventions in favor of people in any other situation of risk. Given the imminent danger to the lives of the people transported, this activity requires a level of readiness twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. The medical transport of sick and traumatized people or of patients requiring organ transplants is a recurring use of the Falcon 50 trijet aircraft, which have been in service with the 31st Ciampino Squadron (Rome) since 1985 and, like the larger and more modern Falcon 900EX, have intercontinental autonomy. According to the operational requirements, the aircraft can quickly adopt one of the following configurations: VIP, with nine passengers; medical transport, with two stretchers and five passengers; the aircraft is equipped with a propulsion system composed of three turbofan engines; it reaches a maximum speed of 940 km/h (Mach 0.86); the range is 14,800 m; the crew consists of 2 pilots, 1 specialist, 1 flight attendant, and 9 passengers.