There has been an apparent first in the fight against Ebola this week.
According to flight records, the private jet company contracted by the State Department to transport Ebola patients flew two air ambulances to West Africa on the same day, reports Yahoo news.
Until Wednesday, Phoenix Air had flown only one Ebola-fighting mission at a time. A second Gulfstream jet featuring the ability to treat infectious patients in flight had been held back in case of an emergency with the first aircraft. But last month, the Georgia-based operation finished customizing a third jet to handle the specialized medical equipment.
The increased rescue capacity comes just in time. On Thursday, the Red Cross warned of a possible rise in the rate of Ebola infections in West Africa as people travel across the region during the holidays.
One of this week’s flights brought an American nurse to the Washington area. On Thursday, the National Institutes of Health announced that an unidentified relief worker who was exposed to the Ebola virus while volunteering in Sierra Leone was being admitted.
So far, no information is known about the mission of this week’s second Ebola flight. Messages left for Phoenix Air were not immediately returned on Thursday. A State Department spokeswoman said she could not immediately answer questions from Yahoo News.
“We won’t have anything for you on this today and may not have something until early next week,” the spokeswoman said via email.