Phoenix Air medical evac plane files flight plan to Dakar, Senegal

[nola_mnr]

Verified tail number N163PA is Phoenix Air medical evac plane from second pic at: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-sty...jet-transport-ebola-victims-article-1.1977123

The reported flight plan is from: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N163PA

I haven't seen anything in the news yet about another ebola patient being evacuated to the U.S. and there could be another explanation for the flight but I thought it was interesting enough to post.

 

[alert]

Re: Phoenix Air medical evac plane files flight plan to Dakar, Senegal

Senegal is Ebola-free, and certainly would not allow an Ebola patient from elsewhere to use its airport for evacuation.

I suspect either Lassa fever, or some non-infectious illness is more likely.

 

[nola_mnr]

Re: Phoenix Air medical evac plane files flight plan to Dakar, Senegal

I'm not sure this is related but I ran across another interesting report when trying to find more info on the above.

A virologist from The Gambia died suddenly of an unknown illness after being evacuated to a hospital in Dakar.

http://standard.gm/site/news/5039-Harr-Njie-dies.html

 

[AnnaLisa]

Re: Phoenix Air medical evac plane files flight plan to Dakar, Senegal

Good sleuthing!

 

[sharon sanders]

Re: Phoenix Air medical evac plane files flight plan to Dakar, Senegal

Yes, good sleuthing!

I moved this thread into the general Africa forum because we don't know what this is. I will move it to the appropriate forum once we have a better idea of what is going on.

 

[blacknail]

Re: Phoenix Air medical evac plane files flight plan to Dakar, Senegal

Looks like it is headed for Atlanta via Bangor tomorrow afternoon.

 

[MHSC]

Re: Phoenix Air medical evac plane files flight plan to Dakar, Senegal

According to google maps Gunjar is an 8 hour drive from Guinea. Note this says community college, but then refers to year 10. The photo at the site says it's an Academy and the kids look like highschoolers to me.



Sunderland pupils defy ebola outbreak to help town in Gambia

YOUNGSTERS from a city school will defy the ebola outbreak to fly out to West Africa this week.

Farringdon Community College has been supporting a town in Gambia for several years and Year 10 pupils will be working on a number of projects in the country.

Headteacher Howard Kemp said: “They will be working for something called the Gunjur Project. The project is run by a couple of British people, and the children will be staying in a secure compound on the site.”

...

The school has been monitoring the ebola situation, but the Gunjur project is hundreds of miles from the disease zone.

“There have been no reported cases of ebola in Gambia and Senegal – which surrounds Gambia –has been declared ebola free by the World Health Organisation,” said Mr Kemp.

“We are checking Foreign Office advice and with the National Travel Health Network and Centre website every day.”

http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/...ola-outbreak-to-help-town-in-gambia-1-6914372

 

[JJackson]

Re: Phoenix Air medical evac plane files flight plan to Dakar, Senegal

Year 10 would be around 15 years. I hope they have a nice trip and are not confined to the compound just because their is a disease outbreak in another part of the continent. At least they are not going to somewhere with Ebola, like New York.

 

[blacknail]

Re: Phoenix Air medical evac plane files flight plan to Dakar, Senegal

Trying to put together a list of patients evacuated and match up their flight details using this article and http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N163PA and http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N173PA

Here are the details of one flight that appears to be the Senegalese medical worker evacuated from Liberia to Leipzig, Germany (bottom to top). It would appear that this flight follows a similar pattern of someone being evacuated to Europe, but not all of the details have appeared yet on flightaware.com

09-Oct-2014 GLF3/L Bangor Intl (KBGR) Cartersville (KVPC) 09:50AM EDT 12:26PM EDT 2:36

09-Oct-2014 GLF3/L Gander Int'l (CYQX) Bangor Intl (KBGR) 09:01AM NDT 09:24AM EDT 1:53

09-Oct-2014 GLF3 Leipzig/Halle (EDDP / LEJ) Gander Int'l (CYQX) 07:21AM CEST 08:21AM NDT 5:29

09-Oct-2014 Unknown Near Zurich Near Zurich 04:17AM CEST result unknown (?) n/a

07-Oct-2014 GLF3/L Bermuda Int'l (TXKF / BDA) Dakar (GOOY / DKR) 04:16PM ADT 01:41AM GMT (+1) (?) 6:25

07-Oct-2014 GLF3/L Cartersville (KVPC) Bermuda Int'l (TXKF / BDA) 12:15PM EDT 03:37PM ADT 2:22

 

[blacknail]

Re: Phoenix Air medical evac plane files flight plan to Dakar, Senegal

The site has been updated to show that the plane is coming in from London which likely means someone was evacuated to London from West Africa today.

 

[blacknail]

Re: Phoenix Air medical evac plane files flight plan to Dakar, Senegal

It is kind of cool that you can watch flights in real time these days: http://www.flightradar24.com/N163PA/

 

[blacknail]

Re: Phoenix Air medical evac plane files flight plan to Dakar, Senegal

From twitter, around the time the plane was on the ground at Stansted:

firealarm ‏@koreafirealarm 7h7 hours ago
Stansted Emergency불꽃명상___October 25, 2014 at 07:29PM http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5609/15001270964_3aed1bfe36_m.jpg ? http://www.flickr.com/photos/126871672N06/15001270964/ ?

dazM33 ‏@dazM33 7h7 hours ago
A 747 has just taken of from Stansted airport with no name no destination

Not really finding any other interesting information though. Not disclosing information about movement of Ebola patients doesn't lead to public confidence.

 

[ming]

Re: Phoenix Air medical evac plane files flight plan to Dakar, Senegal

Is there any more info on this?

 

[blacknail]

Re: Phoenix Air medical evac plane files flight plan to Dakar, Senegal

Nothing new, I did a Google search and found this post http://www.civilianaviation.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=19739 indicating that the plane was "on the ground" that morning referencing a yahoo group for plane enthusiasts. Not sure if that meant it stayed the night. It would be nice if an enthusiast could figure out where it came from as that might shed some light on the case.

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Phoenix Air medical evac plane files flight plan to Dakar, Senegal

Nothing new, I did a Google search and found this post http://www.civilianaviation.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=19739 indicating that the plane was "on the ground" that morning referencing a yahoo group for plane enthusiasts. Not sure if that meant it stayed the night. It would be nice if an enthusiast could figure out where it came from as that might shed some light on the case.

Perhaps it was on the ground being disinfected -it's quite a process.

.

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: Phoenix Air medical evac plane files flight plan to Dakar, Senegal

We know that the plane carried Nina Pham to Maryland on October 16.

"She landed in Maryland just before 10 p.m. CDT for the ambulance ride to the National Institutes of Health."

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/health/P...79433852.html?_osource=SocialFlowTwt_DFWBrand

From the link provided by nola mnr on post #1:
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N163PA

On October 17, the plane left Frederick Municipal Airport, Maryland at 12:13AM and arrived in Cartersville, Georgia at 01:46AM.

On October 23, the plane left Cartersville, Georgia at 01:54AM EDT and arrived in Bermuda at 05:14AM ADT.

On the same day, October 23, the plane left Bermuda at 06:54AM ADT and arrived in Dakar, Senegal at 03:58PM GMT (?)

I do not know the meaning of the interrogation point.

This is the graph presented by the site:
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N163PA/history/20141023/0915Z/TXKF/GOOY

No data on the plane flying back to England from Dakar.

But on October 25, the plane was at London Stansted Airport, England and left at 10:13AM BST to arrive at Bangor International Airport, Maine at 12:36PM EDT.

On the same day, October 25, the plane left Bangor, Maine at 01:30PM EDT and arrived to Cartersville, Georgia at 03:53PM EDT.

So the plane is back in Georgia since yesterday.

 

[ming]

Re: Phoenix Air medical evac plane files flight plan to Dakar, Senegal

Is a pity we can't find out more.

 

[blacknail]

Re: Phoenix Air medical evac plane files flight plan to Dakar, Senegal

Yes, for clarity, this is what I am assuming the sequence of events was:

2014-Oct-23

Depart Cartersville at 01:54AM EDT arrive Bermuda at 05:14AM ADT - leave home base and refuel in Bermuda
Depart Bermuda at 06:54AM ADT arrive Dakar at 03:58PM GMT (?)
- the question mark means that FlightAware doesn't have data for Dakar and can't verify what time the plane landed at
- from Dakar, I am assuming that the plane refueled and the crew may have rested overnight

October 24

- assuming the plane's mission was to pick up an Ebola patient, it likely flew onward to Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone to pick up that patient
- the plane took the patient directly to London, Stansted airport and again, assuming this was an ebola patient, the patient was transferred to the Royal Free Hospital that day
- the plane was decontaminated and the crew spent the night in London based on the posting that the plane was parked on the ground the next morning

2014-Oct-25

Depart London Stansted at 10:13AM BST arrive Bangor at 12:36PM EDT - clear customs and refuel
Depart Bangor at 01:30PM EDT arrive Cartersville 03:53PM EDT - back to home base


I've requested an account at the civilianaviation.co.uk website and will post there if and when it I am approved to see if anyone there can confirm where the plane came to London from which might give us a better idea of what happened.

 

[ming]

Re: Phoenix Air medical evac plane files flight plan to Dakar, Senegal

Ok thanks for that. Just very interesting isn't it...

 

[blacknail]

Re: Phoenix Air medical evac plane files flight plan to Dakar, Senegal

I took another look at flightradar24 tonight and found that you can look at flight data from the past week and you can filter it by aircraft type, which I did for Friday and GLF3 and I was able to see the flight coming in from Africa and landing at about 19:45 UTC on Friday. Unfortunately, the route it took meant that it only showed up on radar over the Mediterranean so there is no way to know from this data where it started this flight. This does mean that they brought someone to London and it wasn't just a refueling stop. I've attached a screenshot of the flight path, the red means it very high at that point (43,000 ft, 475 knots).