News Release

Life of 46-year-old Danish man with bacterial meningitis saved thanks to international collaboration of leading air ambulance companies

On September 6-7 Jet Rescue Air Ambulance of Mexico and Unicair Air Ambulance of Germany collaborated to save the life of a 46-year-old Danish national who was diagnosed with acute bacterial meningitis while in Mexico City.

To bridge the 9,512 km distance from Mexico City to Copenhagen in Denmark, the air ambulance companies collaborated on a wing-to-wing transfer of the patient at Gander International Airport in Canada. Jet Rescue Air Ambulance deployed a Learjet 55 critical care air ambulance (XA-UCI), while Unicair deployed a Learjet 45 critical care air ambulance (D-CICU), both aircraft with critical care physicians and seasoned flight paramedics on board. The wing-to-wing transport ensured continuum of the critical care environment from Hospital Angeles Pedregal in Mexico City to a hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark.

“A wing-to-wing mission requires precision coordination and accurate execution of the timeline by two companies flying from two different points of origin to a meeting point. Quite literally, the patient’s survival depends on it,” said Dr. Victor Cifuentes, chief flight physician of Jet Rescue.

“Our reward for being in this challenging business is two-fold: The knowledge that we helped save a life and the knowledge that we brought a patient closer to his family,” said Carlos Salinas, owner and CEO of Jet Rescue Air Ambulance. “This life-saving mission brought together two of the best medevac companies in Europe and the Americas. The collaboration with Unicair was seamless and on-schedule. Eva Kluge and her team are outstanding professionals and an optimal partner for wing-to-wing missions,” added Salinas.

“We were delighted to collaborate with the Jet Rescue team and are glad that we could be part of this successful mission,” concluded Eva Kluge, chief commercial officer at Unicair.