420 people currently following
Army parachutes onto remote island to help Briton with hantavirus in a dramatic rescue mission never attempted before
A British man is stranded on one of the most remote inhabited islands on earth. He may have Hantavirus. His oxygen supply is running out. There is no airstrip. No way to reach him by boat in time. So the British Army did the only thing left. They jumped out of a plane.
Six paratroopers and two medical clinicians from 16 Air Assault Brigade dropped onto Tristan da Cunha over the weekend. An intensive care nurse and doctor jumped in tandem with two of the soldiers. They landed on the island’s golf course. Behind them, an RAF A400M dropped 3.3 tonnes of medical supplies and oxygen for the local hospital.
The man they came to help left the MV Hondius on April 14. That is the same Cruise Ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak that has now killed three people. He lives on the island. Two weeks after leaving the vessel, he started showing symptoms. Diarrhoea first. Then fever. He is stable for now but the situation was becoming critical.
Army parachutes onto remote island to help Briton with hantavirus as the world watches a rescue with zero room for error
Tristan da Cunha sits in the South Atlantic Ocean. It has 221 British citizens and no runway. The only way in is by boat. That would have taken too long. Brig Ed Cartwright, who coordinated the operation, said the jump was extremely difficult. Wind speeds regularly top 25 miles per hour. The island is small. The soldiers were dropped about five kilometers out over the ocean, turned into the wind, and blew backward over the land before hitting the edge of the island. Getting it wrong meant ending up in the Atlantic.
The Ministry of Defence confirmed this is the first time the UK military has parachuted medical personnel for humanitarian support. The local medical team usually consists of just two people. They were not equipped for this kind of crisis.
The MV Hondius has now docked in Tenerife. Over a hundred people are disembarking. Six cases of hantavirus have been confirmed, including two Britons being treated in the Netherlands and South Africa. Two others are voluntarily isolating at home in the UK after leaving the ship at St Helena on April 24.
The remaining 22 British passengers are being flown home on a charter flight. They will be taken to Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside and isolated for 45 days. The UK Health Security Agency will monitor them closely.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper called the mission extraordinary. Armed Forces Minister Al Carns praised the bravery of the personnel involved. The risk to the general public remains low. But for the man on that tiny island, the sight of soldiers falling from the sky meant one thing. Help had arrived.
