The Nigerian Air Force has disclosed that it’s aircraft deployed to support the movement of officials, medical supplies and materials during the COVID-19 pandemic, has flown more than 250 hours in about seven weeks.
It was gathered that the NAF deployed various transport aircraft since the second week of March 2020 including the C-130H, the Falcon 900, the beech craft, the ATR 42 and the Dornier 228 in the mass movement of medical supplies, kits and health officials nationwide.
The NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, said in an exclusive interview in Abuja that the NAF medical teams had been participating in the COVID-19 efforts, and were on standby in the event of aeromedical evacuation.
The NAF’s spokesman added that another set of medical officials were trained by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control on Thursday as parts of the overall military aid to civil authorities.
Daramola said, “The airlifts we did and still do are for officials, equipment, supplies and other associated air movements. They are being done by the air force. As of the time of NAF celebration in April, the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, mentioned 151 hours. But as of this Thursday, the air force has flown over 250 hours in support of the COVID-19 response.”
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“The medical team, we trained on flight aeromedical evacuation systems, have thankfully not been deployed in that magnitude of the C-130H aircraft. That magnitude would mean that we have mass critical conditions that need to be moved from one place to the other, but we don’t pray to get to that stage.”
