Air Force personnel at the Scott Air Force Base achieved their first aeromedical evacuation utilizing the Negatively Pressurized Conex (NPC) their latest isolated containment chamber. The Air Force personnel moved 12 patients from the U.S. Central Command to Ramstein Air Base to obtain a higher level of care at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.
The NPC is the latest isolated containment chamber developed to transport individuals with infectious diseases, such as the novel coronavirus. This operation brings the total number of patients using an isolation containment chamber for 18 missions since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
At the onset of the outbreak, the need to transport individuals with COVID-19, resulted in the Air Mobility Command (AMC) to increase training on using the Transport Isolation System (TIS). The TIS is an isolation chamber developed during the 2014 Ebola crisis but never operationalized. However, TIS was first used April 2020 to transport three COVID-positive patients and has since been used to perform 16 additional aeromedical evacuations.
However, the TIS offers limited capability as the system was designed to transport only two to four patients. So, in early April, the AMC and the Air Force Materiel Command leaders joined forces to find creative solutions to address a joint urgent operational need so large numbers of COVID-19 patients could be transported in a safe manner.
The NPC was quickly utilized since NPC offers a significant capacity increase capable of safely transporting up to 28 passengers and23 ambulatory patients. In addition, multiple configurations are available to accommodate combinations of ambulatory and litter patients.
Today, the NPC is certified to fly on C-17s and presently NPC is testing for certification on the C-5M Super Galaxy aircraft. Also, NPC-Lite, a smaller variation is configured to be used aboard the C-130 Hercules which was certified for use on June 25, 2020.