Cartersville-based Phoenix Air is preparing to test a new containment system that can fly four contagious patients in a Boeing 747 cargo jet, as it expands its mission beyond the Ebola transports it became known for in 2014.
Next week, Phoenix Air plans to load the 44-foot long, 8-foot tall containerized bio-containment system into a 747 to fly from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to Andrews Air Force Base, where it will fly simulated patients in an exercise with the U.S. State Department.
The company displayed the new bio-containment system sitting inside a hangar during a visit by U.S. Sen. David Perdue to the air charter company’s facilities at the Cartersville airport.
“This is remarkable, what’s going on here,” Perdue said. “I wanted to meet these guys who developed this capability.”
The new bio-containment units for four patients, designed by research organization MRIGlobal, are significantly larger and sturdier than the smaller “tent” used to transport Ebola patients and Lassa patients inside a Gulfstream G3 jet. The four-patient units could be transported in 747s or in military C-17 or C-5 transport aircraft.
The units were paid for with a $5 million private-public partnership grant between the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and the State Department, and were first delivered to Dobbins Air Reserve Base last year. Phoenix Air has spent the last several months training and preparing to use the new units.
Phoenix Air gained international attention for its Ebola plane two years ago. Phoenix Air air ambulance program medical director Michael Flueckiger estimated the Aeromedical Biological Containment System has helped save about 20 patients.
