Britain’s elite airborne troops have carried out a dramatic mercy mission to the world’s most remote inhabited island, after Army medics parachuted into the South Atlantic to save a British hantavirus patient before vital oxygen supplies ran out.
In a remarkable display of military precision and British resolve, six paratroopers from the Army’s 16 Air Assault Brigade leapt from a Royal Air Force Atlas A400M over Tristan da Cunha on Saturday evening, accompanied by a military doctor and nurse who jumped in tandem to bring emergency medical aid to the isolated island community.
The daring operation, mounted thousands of miles from the UK, was the only way of reaching the patient in time because Tristan da Cunha, a British Overseas Territory, has no airstrip and can only normally be accessed by sea.
The RAF aircraft departed from Ascension Island on 9 May, supported by a Voyager tanker aircraft for the gruelling journey south across the Atlantic. Alongside the medics and paratroopers, the A400M also dropped desperately needed medical supplies onto the island.
The mission was delayed by 24 hours because of dangerous winds over the drop zone, before the team finally parachuted onto Tristan da Cunha shortly before 8pm UK time on Saturday.
The patient is a British national living on the island who had disembarked from the expedition cruise vessel MV Hondius after a confirmed case of hantavirus was identified on board. The individual is now being monitored by local health services, supported by the newly arrived military clinicians.
Military planners feared the island’s limited oxygen supplies had reached a critical level, making an airborne intervention the only realistic option.
Brigadier Ed Cartwright, commanding officer of 16 Air Assault Brigade, praised the operation and the cooperation between the Army and RAF.
He said: “This was a joint effort with the Royal Air Force and highlights the speed, reach and utility of parachuting.
“The arrival of paratroopers, medical personnel and medical supplies from the sky has hopefully reassured the people of Tristan da Cunha.”
The island, part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, is widely regarded as the most remote inhabited island on Earth, sitting more than 1,500 miles from the nearest mainland.
The nearest Royal Navy warship, HMS Medway, is currently several days away near the Falkland Islands and would take considerable time to reach the island if deployed.
Meanwhile, the international response to the deadly MV Hondius outbreak continues to intensify.
Three deaths have now been linked to the outbreak aboard the cruise ship, where the virus is believed to have spread after exposure to infected rodents. Hantavirus is typically transmitted through contaminated urine, saliva or droppings and can cause fever, headaches, vomiting, diarrhoea and severe respiratory complications.
A one-mile exclusion zone has been imposed around the vessel as it approaches the Canary Islands carrying nearly 150 passengers and crew.
Twenty two British nationals aboard the ship are expected to disembark in Tenerife on Sunday before being flown back to Britain for isolation and testing at the specialist unit at Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside, the same facility used for Britons evacuated from Wuhan during the early days of the Covid pandemic.
Spanish military personnel are expected to ferry passengers ashore in small boats to a processing centre at the industrial port of Granadilla, before charter flights return travellers to countries including Britain, the United States, Ireland, Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
After alarm among residents in Tenerife, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus sought to calm fears in an open letter to islanders.
He wrote: “The virus was ‘serious’ but that the outbreak was ‘not another Covid’ and that the ‘current public health risk from hantavirus remains low’.”
Prof Robin May, chief scientific officer at the UK Health Security Agency, said: “We continue to work at pace with our international partners to ensure the safe repatriation of British nationals from the MV Hondius.
“The safety and well-being of those on board remains our number one priority. Established infection control measures will be in place at every step of the journey, and passengers will receive full support throughout, including during their period of isolation.”
Officials have repeatedly stressed that the overall threat to the British public remains very low, although in rare circumstances hantavirus can spread from person to person.
For the tiny community on Tristan da Cunha, however, Saturday’s extraordinary military airdrop was a vivid reminder that even on the edge of the world, Britain still looks after its own.
Images: MOD Crown Copyright News / Editorial Licence.
