Survivors of Afghan helicopter crash airlifted to Germany

Published Feb. 20, 2007

- RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AFNEWS) -- Only hours after a helicopter crashed in Afghanistan, Airmen from an aeromedical evacuation control team in Southwest Asia got 11 of fourteen injured survivors onboard a C-17 Globemaster III bound for Germany.

"That really made a difference in saving lives" said Lt. Col. Lenora Cook, the evacuation control team chief.

Two other survivors were airlifted to Germany later and one did not require evacuation.

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. Colonel Cook's team located airlift, air evacuation crews and critical care air evacuation teams.

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

"There were seven urgents and four priority patients who are now on a mission from Kandahar, Afghanistan to Ramstein," said the colonel.

Only hours after being found alive, 11 of the wounded Soldiers and Marines began their seven and half hour flight to Germany.

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

Her team worked diligently to keep the 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 touched down at Ramstein where twenty members from the Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility loaded them onto 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," he said.

The troops were injured when their Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter reportedly "had a sudden, unexplained loss of power and control and crashed" in Southeast Afghanistan. According to a U.S. Central Command public affairs spokesman, the helicopter crashed early Sunday morning carrying twenty-two Soldiers, Airmen and Marines.