Royal Jet BBJ in Chinese emergency medical evacuation

Using its fully equipped and expertly manned Boeing Business Jet aircraft, the Royal Jet Medevac mission landed in China after a 16-hour flight from Maya Maya Airport in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo, following a brief stop in Abu Dhabi for fuel and crew change. The flight was welcomed at the Beijing airport by Vice Foreign Minister Xie Hangsheng and other senior Beijing Municipal officials.

Apart from Royal Jet’s well-trained and highly-skilled Medevac team headed by Dr. Ibrahim Soto, Royal Jet’s Medevac Medical Director, also aboard the aircraft were five Chinese medical experts who were dispatched to Brazzaville by the Beijing government shortly after the blasts to tend to the wounded.

The blasts, which the local government said were caused by an electrical short circuit in an arms depot in Brazzaville, claimed more than 200 lives and injured over 1,500. Six Chinese workers out of about 140 who were working at a nearby construction site were killed in the blasts.

“This is a record achievement for Royal Jet under extremely difficult circumstances,” said Royal Jet President and CEO Shane O’Hare. “This is the first time we have evacuated 31 patients on one aircraft. All the injured were medically assessed to ensure that they could undergo the long-distance flight. They are now receiving medical treatment in hospitals in Beijing."

Briefly discussing the extremely delicate and most challenging Medevac mission ever for Royal Jet, Dr. Soto said:  “We had a total of 31 patients, four of them in a critical condition. As our medical team arrived in Brazzaville, we initially spent 15 hours stabilizing the patients before accommodating all of them safely in our aircraft.

“The entire process was very challenging due to the large amount of patients and the critical condition they were in. We couldn’t have done it without the support and dedication of Royal Jet’s flight crew and cabin crew, who helped us a lot in providing nursing care to the patients.

“We handed over all patients in stable condition last night, and we were received by high officials of the Chinese government who were very impressed with our work,” Dr. Soto added.
Royal Jet’s Medevac unit was among its best performing group in the company’s operations for 2011, flying 192 missions with 309 patients.

“Our fleet of Gulfstream, Learjet and Boeing Business Jet aircraft, based in Abu Dhabi, allows us to cover the globe and tailor each mission to the patient’s medical needs along with our own specialist and highly trained medical team,” O’Hare said. “We are proud to have played our part in repatriating these injured workers.”
 

Pictured:  One of the 31 wounded Chinese workers airlifted by Royal Jet from the Republic of Congo to China is carried out of the BBJ tat Capital International Airport in Beijing.
 

Pictured: Two of the 31 wounded Chinese workers airlifted from the Republic of Congo to China is seen resting on board Royal Jet’s Boeing Business Jet