In the evening hours of Saturday, two Austrian soldiers of the KFOR mission were successfully evacuated from Pristina, Kosovo, to Austria in a C-130 Hercules transport aircraft of the Austrian Armed Forces. The Hercules, which had been converted into a “flying hospital”, brought the two soldiers, one of whom was seriously ill with Covid-19, safely back home.
A doctor and disinfection specialists from the NBC defense team were on board to provide medical care. The landing in Hörsching took place at 19:55. The sick soldiers were then transferred by Red Cross vehicles to hospitals in Linz for further medical treatment.
“The soldiers of the Austrian Armed Forces make an invaluable contribution to Europe’s security on missions abroad worldwide. Our soldiers can rely on us to bring them back home whenever necessary. I would like to thank all the soldiers involved in the evacuation for this outstanding achievement,” said Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner. The evacuation flight was prepared and carried out by the Air Support Command based in Hörsching, Upper Austria. This task force of the armed forces is the permanent “umbilical cord” for the Austrian contingents abroad to the homeland. The flight went off without a hitch.
A C-130 equipped with the AEROMEDEVAC (Aeromedical Evacuation) module can transport sick or injured/wounded patients over long distances, for example from the place of deployment back to Austria. Intensive medical care for patients is also possible during the flight. The module can accommodate two intensive care patients or up to nine patients without intensive care and up to five additional persons (accompanying medical staff). It has its own power supply that can keep the medical systems running autonomously for at least six hours. The noise and vibration-damped module is equipped with state-of-the-art medical technology, was developed from scratch for the Austrian Armed Forces and cost 1.2 million euros. The system, developed by an Austrian company, is the only one of its kind in the world.
