U.S. was ill-equipped to handle Ebola rescues, State Dept. contract reveals

For now, the world has to rely on a small, Georgia-based flight company for Ebola evacuations. (AP)

Life-saving gear needed to fly sick patients was in storage as epidemic grew

news.yahoo.com - by Jason Sickles - November 11, 2014

The air ambulance operation tasked with rescuing U.S. Ebola victims from West Africa was initially slowed by bureaucratic bungling and is now at risk of being overburdened as thousands of American troops deploy to fight the deadly disease.

Yahoo News has learned the U.S. government spent millions last decade to develop and build two of the world’s only isolation chambers for flying contagious patients — but as the epidemic raged in West Africa this summer and American aid workers there needed evacuating, the medical inventions were packed away in a small-town Georgia warehouse.

The troubling lack of preparedness by federal agencies forced the State Department to put up $4.9 million as part of a rushed contract to employ a commercial aviator to safely evacuate Ebola-infected Americans from West Africa.

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The U.S. military is currently developing containment pods for its C-17 cargo planes that could carry up to 15 infected people at a time. Maj. Gen. Lariviere told a congressional panel the military wouldn't purchase those pods until January -- the last full month of the State Department's current contract with Phoenix Air.

(SEE RELATED ARTICLE HERE)

Emergency Aeromedical Evacuation Services
(6 month contract - expires February 18, 2015)
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=dede7398603a794323675588fbd4609e&tab=core&_cview=0