Nigerian Air Force aircraft deployed for medical supplies

Chinazor Megbolu

The Nigerian Air Force aircraft have been deployed to boost support for medical officials during the Covid-19 pandemic era.

In a statement obtained from its website on Sunday, NAF disclosed that the deployment is to support the movement of officials, medical supplies and materials during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown period.

The NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, in the statement explained 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.

Daramola pointed out that the NAF medical teams had been featuring in the Covid-19 efforts, and were on standby in the event of aeromedical evacuation.

He stated that another set of medical officials were trained by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) last Thursday as part of the overall military aid to civil authorities.

According to Daramola; “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 Sadiq Abubakar, mentioned 151 hours. But as at this Thursday, the air force has flown over 250 hours in support of the COVID-19 response.

“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”.