Survivors of Afghan Helo Crash Medivac’d to Germany

  • Published
  • By USAFE News Service
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany --  Only hours after a fatal helicopter crash in Afghanistan, Airmen from the Aeromedical Evacuation Control Team in Southwest Asia got fourteen survivors on board a C-17 to Germany.

"That really made a difference in saving lives" said Team Chief Lt. Col. Lenora Cook.

Once Coalition rescuers from Australia, Canada, England, and Holland, as well as from the United States, reached the crash site, they reported that 14 of the 22 on board survived. They rendered life saving care on site and put out a call to the Joint Patient Movement Requirement Center.

This is where the AECT took over. Lt. Col. Cook's team located airlift, air evac crews and Critical Car Air Evac Teams.

"In this case two CCAT teams were needed" said Cook. "This was due to the extent of the injuries that included head and chest injuries as well as multiple fractures."

"Oh, the injuries were terrible" remarked Lt. Col. Cook. ""There were seven urgents and four priority patients that are now on a mission from Kandahar, Afghanistan to Ramstein."

Amazingly, only hours after being found alive, 11 wounded Soldiers and Marines embarked on a seven and half hour flight to Germany.

"It was a pretty hectic flight" said Captain Karen Mackenzie, a trauma surgeon onboard with the CCAT. "We had five critical patients... head injuries, chest wounds, spinal fractures."

Her team worked overtime to keep their patients stable during the long flight but it was "absolutely imperative that we get these patients to a medical facility."

Shortly before 2 a.m. they arrived on the tarmac at Ramstein where twenty members of the Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility loaded them on to two busses for the short trip to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.

In about an hour the busses rolled out leaving behind a cold and tired team from the CASF, but their shift leader, Tech. Sgt. Billy Bailey, summed up their feelings best. "It's what we're here for, to get the troops the care they need, as fast as possible"

The wounded received their injuries when their U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter reportedly "had a sudden, unexplained loss of power and control and crashed" in Southeast Afghanistan. According to US Central Command Public Affairs the helicopter crashed early Sunday morning carrying 22 Soldiers, Airmen and Marines.