(Photo: Allied Joint Command Brussun)
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When your package has to get to someone immediately, call the Royal Norwegian Air Force.
The patient in the town of Bodø was dying. Doctors needed to perform a specialized procedure to save his life, yet they didn't have the necessary equipment to do it. But a hospital in Trondheim, 280 miles away, did have that equipment.
Hospital officials in Trodheim went to the nearby Air Force base. The Guardian reports that the officers there didn't hesitate and immediately fired up an F-16 fighter jet:
“They didn’t ask any questions, except for what size the machine was,” Anders Wetting Carlsen, chief doctor at Trondheim’s Saint Olaf hospital, told AFP.
In a further stroke of good luck, one of the fighter jets was equipped with an external hold that allowed it to transport equipment. The machine was loaded on to the aircraft, which made for Bodø at top speed.
The trip normally takes 35 minutes. But the pilot pushed hard and got there in just 25 minutes. This quick delivery saved the patient's life.
-via Glenn Reynolds