A helicopter of the Fuerza Aérea Uruguaya (Uruguayan Air Force) Bell 212 helicopter transporting covid vaccines encountered a technical malfunction. The pilot had to make an emergency landing and the helicopter and the vaccines were destroyed by fire. The three crew members were injured.
An Uruguay’s Air Force helicopter carrying two boxes of Pfizer vaccines against Covid-19 crashed in the Eastern state of Rocha and the 3-member crew was taken to a local hospital with non-serious injuries.
The accident occurred due to a “mechanical failure,” the Ministry of Defense reported and resulted in a fire that provoked total losses of the aircraft and the shipment it was transporting.
Each refrigerated box of vaccines contains 975 doses and the shipment carried in the aircraft was intended to inoculate people over 80 years old in the state bordering Brazil.
The helicopter was part of the distribution operation for the third shipment of Pfizer vaccines that arrived in the country on Wednesday night, part of the 2-million doses acquired by Uruguay and signed back in January.
The crew members from the air force suffered polytraumatisms that are not serious.
The Director of Health of Rocha, Diego Pintado, informed to Subrayado that the Pfizer doses that were being transported in the helicopter to the department were lost, as there was a fire as a result of the accident.
The Transit Police will be in charge of transporting doses to Rocha in order to carry out the vaccination plan.
The helicopter suffered a mechanical failure while flying over the department of Rocha, which forced the three crew members of the aircraft to make an emergency landing, according to sources from the Ministry of Defence. As a result of the manoeuvre, the helicopter caught fire and suffered total losses.
The Air Force and the Army are in charge of distributing the refrigerated doses to various states in the interior of the country.
