Super Puma helicopter to transport COVID-19 victims to hospital in the northern Norway. Credit: Lufttransport.

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Operator Lufttransport was drafted to quickly transport coronavirus (Covid-19) victims to a hospital in northern Norway.

The move came in response to an urgent request from Norwegian Air Ambulance Services (Luftambulansetjenesten) to provide a solution amid the global health crisis.

Luftambulansetjenesten depends on EpiGuard’s EpiShuttle isolation and transportation system to carry patients to hospital without contaminating vehicles and staff.

The AS332 L1 Super Puma helicopter was the right choice as it was large enough to accommodate the system. The aircraft was under repair at Heli One’s Stavanger facility.

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The aircraft had to be rapidly installed, tested and certified with the Epishuttle for the transport mission.

Following this, it successfully flew remotely located patients to the University Hospital of Northern Norway (UNN).

Super Puma was operated by two Lufttransport pilots and one technician, while one doctor and two paramedics from UNN cared for the patients in the EpiShuttle capsule.

Luftransport COO Kjetil Indrevik said: “In the north, we have two metres of snow and it is still snowing so this Super Puma was just what was needed.

“It wasn’t exactly in a thousand pieces but it needed a lot of work doing and Heli One did a great job in getting it ready and then we flew it to our base in Tromsø.”

Super Puma served the Icelandic Coast Guard and an EMS interior from Air Ambulance Technology of Austria.

In September last year, Airbus Helicopters delivered its 1,000th Super Puma helicopter: a twin-engine multi-role H215 assembled in Marignane, France. It was handed over to the German Federal Police (Bundespolizei).

Confirmed cases on coronavirus have reached 1,279,336 globally while the death toll stands at 69,844.