LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — British military personnel carried out an airborne operation to deliver urgent medical support for a suspected Hantavirus patient on a South Atlantic island, ministers said on Sunday.
An army specialist team parachuted onto the island of Tristan da Cunha, Britain’s most remote overseas territory, a defense ministry statement said.
One of three British nationals diagnosed with suspected hantavirus linked to the outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship is on the island.
The team of six paratroopers and two military clinicians, all from the 16 Air Assault Brigade, descended from a Royal Air Force (RAF) A400M transport aircraft “in a daring parachute drop,” the statement said.
Vital oxygen supplies and other medical aid were air-dropped almost simultaneously.
The urgent response came after confirmation by the UK Health Security Agency on Friday of a suspected infection in a British national on the island.
Tristan da Cunha, a group of volcanic islands with a population of around 220 has no airstrip and is accessible only by boat.
With oxygen supplies at critically low levels, officials said an airdrop was the only viable option to deliver care in time and support the island’s two-person medical team.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper paid tribute to the armed forces for an “extraordinary operation.”
The drop involved a long-range flight of nearly 6,800 kilometers from RAF Brize Norton in central England to Ascension Island, followed by a further 3,000-km flight to Tristan da Cunha, the statement said.
Armed Forces Minister Al Carns said the operation had been carried out in “incredibly challenging circumstances”... with the utmost professionalism and composure under pressure.”
The two other British nationals involved in the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak were earlier evacuated to the Netherlands and South Africa.
In Granadilla de Abona, Spain, the final evacuation flight for occupants of the cruise ship will leave the Canary Islands on Monday, Spain’s health minister said on Sunday.
The Dutch-flagged Hondius arrived at the small industrial port of Granadilla on Tenerife early on Sunday before the scheduled evacuation of passengers and some crew.
The Atlantic archipelago’s regional authorities have consistently resisted taking in the ship, which has suffered three deaths and was only authorized to anchor offshore instead of docking in the port.
But all passengers are asymptomatic and were undergoing a final medical assessment before their disembarkation, Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia told reporters on Tenerife shortly before the operation was due to start.
“The last flight of the entire procedure is scheduled for tomorrow, which is the flight to Australia,” she said.
The ship’s 14 Spaniards would leave first, followed by a Dutch flight that would also take citizens from Germany, Belgium, Greece and part of the crew, Garcia said.
Separate flights for Canadian, Turkish, French, British, Irish and US citizens were also planned for Sunday, added Garcia.
Regional authorities have warned that adverse weather conditions would force the vessel to leave from Monday.