Indian Air Force Inducts Indigenous Airborne Rescue Pod for Isolated Transportation

June 8, 2020
New Delhi:
The Indian Air Force has designed, developed and inducted an Airborne Rescue Pod for Isolated Transportation (ARPIT). This pod will be utilised for evacuation of critical patients with infectious diseases including COVID-19 from high altitude area, isolated and remote places.

Requirement of an air evacuation system with facility to prevent spread of infectious aerosol from a COVID-19 patient during air travel was felt by IAF when COVID-19 was declared as a pandemic. The first prototype was developed at 3 BRD AF and has undergone various modifications.

This indigenously designed system has been developed at a cost of Rs Sixty Thousand only, which is very less as compared to the imported systems costing up to Rs Sixty Lakh.

The system has been developed as a lightweight isolation system made from aviation certified material. It has a transparent and durable cast Perspex for enhanced patient visibility which is larger, higher and wider than the existing models. The isolation system caters for suitable number of air exchanges, integration of medical monitoring instruments, and ventilation to an intubated patient. In addition, it generates high constant negative pressure in the isolation chamber for prevention of infection risk to aircrew, ground crew and health care workers involved in air transportation.

—India News Stream