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Army parachutes onto remote island to help Briton with suspected hantavirus
BBC News ^ | May 10th 2026 | Lauren Turner

Posted on 05/10/2026 5:35:17 AM PDT by Winniesboy

British Army medics have parachuted onto the remote Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha to help a British national with suspected hantavirus.

The man left MV Hondius, the cruise ship hit by a deadly outbreak of the virus, in mid-April at Britain's most remote inhabited overseas territory, where he lives...

Oxygen was also dropped from an RAF A400M on Saturday, with supplies at a "critical level" on the island, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.

A team of six paratroopers and two medical clinicians from 16 Air Assault Brigade parachuted on to Tristan da Cunha - an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean considered to be among the world's most remote islands - having flown from RAF Brize Norton...

Two of the paratroopers jumped in tandem with an intensive care nurse and intensive care doctor, who will provide help to the island, which usually has a two-person medical team...

This is the first time the UK military has parachuted in medical personnel to provide humanitarian support, according to the MoD.

Tristan da Cunha, which has a population of 221, has no airstrip and can only be reached by boat. Average winds are often over 25mph, causing difficult conditions for the paratroopers, the MoD said.

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: hantavirus; mvhondius; tristandacunha

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As the medics were tandem-jumped, sounds as if they weren't jump-trained, or at least not to the necessary standard...quite impressive.
1 posted on 05/10/2026 5:35:17 AM PDT by Winniesboy
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To: Winniesboy

What incredible people who really must have chosen medicine to help others. Clapping wildly and hoping everyone stays safe.


2 posted on 05/10/2026 5:42:57 AM PDT by mairdie
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To: Winniesboy

Flashbacks to the movie ‘Outbreak’ where the parachute wasn’t attached to medics but it was sent in by the army for the same kind of reason...to control the spread of an unstoppable virus.


3 posted on 05/10/2026 5:50:12 AM PDT by know.your.why
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To: Winniesboy

Another related link with no paywall:

Essex troops parachute onto remote island to help British national with suspected hantavirus

https://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2026-05-10/troops-parachute-onto-remote-island-to-help-brit-with-suspected-hantavirus


4 posted on 05/10/2026 5:50:53 AM PDT by jacknhoo (Luke 12:51; Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation.)
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To: Winniesboy

A great medical mission adventure for the medical people and the six medics, I wonder what the story is on which Airborne medics get tandem jump training and about tandem jump training in American forces.


5 posted on 05/10/2026 5:53:16 AM PDT by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: ansel12

They should send him a bill. Perhaps the accounting department calls it training.


6 posted on 05/10/2026 6:07:41 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: DIRTYSECRET

Send who a bill, for what?


7 posted on 05/10/2026 6:11:14 AM PDT by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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https://search.brave.com/search?q=Tristan+da+Cunha+youtube


8 posted on 05/10/2026 6:13:28 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (TDS -- it's not just for DNC shills anymore -- oh, wait, yeah it is.)
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To: SunkenCiv

9 posted on 05/10/2026 6:17:51 AM PDT by TheDon (Remember the J6 political prisoners! Remember Ashli Babbitt!)
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Mark your calendar.

A total solar eclipse will pass over the island on 5 December 2048. The island is calculated to be on the centre line of the umbra’s path for nearly three and a half minutes of totality.


10 posted on 05/10/2026 6:34:27 AM PDT by OldHarbor
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To: OldHarbor

The infamous South Atlantic Magnetic Anomaly must be on the spot or close by.


11 posted on 05/10/2026 6:45:08 AM PDT by Theophilus (covfefe!)
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To: Winniesboy

Tristan de Cunha has an interesting history. Currently home to 246 people. St. Helena—the remote island Napoleon was sent for his second exile and to which Tristan de Cunha is administratively tied—is a sprawling metropolis by comparison.


12 posted on 05/10/2026 6:46:29 AM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: TheDon
Tristan da Cunha -- where no one has to reach for the remote!

13 posted on 05/10/2026 7:08:28 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (TDS -- it's not just for DNC shills anymore -- oh, wait, yeah it is.)
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To: Winniesboy

It sounds lame. We’d go in with Ospreys or Sikorskys so that we’d have significant medical facilities to use on site and a means to airlift the needful to a hospital.


14 posted on 05/10/2026 7:30:41 AM PDT by GingisK
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To: Winniesboy

Not really impressive. I’ve tandem jumped twice. You’re basically cargo at that point.


15 posted on 05/10/2026 9:04:16 AM PDT by cyclotic (Don’t be part of the problem. Be the entire problem)
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