The young patient, from the “S. Vincenzo” Hospital in Taormina, was transferred aboard a 46th Air Brigade aircraft along with a medical team and an ambulance for subsequent admission to the “Bambino Gesù” in Rome.
A very delicate urgent medical transport was completed late last night, June 7th, carried out by a C-130J aircraft of the 46th Air Brigade of the Italian Air Force. The flight allowed for the rapid and safe transfer of a child of just 7 years old, in imminent danger of death, from Sigonella airport to Ciampino airport.
The young patient, previously hospitalised at the “S. Vincenzo” Hospital in Taormina due to a serious illness, needed to be transferred as quickly as possible to the “Bambino Gesù” Paediatric Hospital in Rome to receive life-saving specialist treatment. Given the child's critical condition, it was necessary to deploy a C-130J, a large aircraft capable of directly boarding the ambulance with the patient and the medical support team on board, thus ensuring continuity of care throughout all phases of the journey.
The request for intervention, deemed necessary to ensure maximum promptness, was made by the Prefecture of Rome. The crew of the 46th Air Brigade of Pisa, on standby for this type of emergency, completed boarding procedures in Sigonella, taking off around 11:30 PM local time. The aircraft landed on the Ciampino runway shortly before 1 AM, after which the ambulance, once disembarked, immediately headed towards the hospital facility in the capital.
As is standard for this type of emergency intervention, the flight was authorised and coordinated by the Prime Minister's Office, the body responsible for authorising State air fleet activations for medical and rescue transport across the entire national territory.
This type of mission falls within the institutional duties that the Air Force carries out daily for the community. The armed forces' crews and transport aircraft are ready to take off 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, even in complex weather conditions, to ensure the urgent transport not only of people in imminent danger to life, but also of organs for transplant, medical teams or, as in this case, directly operational rescue vehicles.