Romanian medical aircraft joins Crans-Montana burn patients airlift efforts under EU Civil Protection Mechanism
A Romanian Air Force C-27J Spartan configured for medical missions took off on January 2 around 7:00 p.m. from the 90th Air Transport Base in Otopeni, heading to Switzerland on a mission to fly six severe burn patients from Lausanne to a hospital in Paris, the Ministry of National Defense announced.
According to the cited source, the patients' monitoring during the flight was to be ensured by a mixed medical team provided by the Romanian Air Force and the Mobile Emergency Resuscitation and Extrication Service of the Floreasca Clinical Emergency Hospital's Emergency Ward.
The aircraft's mission was approved at the request of the Emergency Management Department, based on the international assistance request made by the authorities of the Swiss Confederation through the European Civil Protection Mechanism, the Ministry of National Defense specified, mentioning that the mechanism was established in 2001 by the European Union to allow participating countries (EU and non-EU) to coordinate assistance in the event of a large-scale emergency situation that cannot be handled by a single country's civil protection system alone.
The head of the Emergency Management Department, Secretary of State Raed Arafat, stated on Friday for broadcaster Digi 24 that Romania is helping Switzerland following the fire at the Le Constellation bar in the Crans-Montana ski resort after the activation of the European Civil Protection Mechanism.
'Switzerland activated the European Civil Protection Mechanism on January 1, requesting hospital beds, transport capabilities and medical assessment teams on the ground in Switzerland from other countries. Hospital places were offered in Germany, Italy, France. Transport capabilities were offered by Luxembourg, in addition to capabilities such as helicopters offered by France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and aircraft from the Swiss Air Rescue Service,' Arafat said, stressing that Romania contributes a medevac aircraft, complete with a medical team. He noted that many of the procedures of this assistance mechanism were created after the lessons learned from the 2015 Colectiv tragedy in Bucharest. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Catalin Alexandru; EN - writing by: Simona Klodnischi)
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