A helicopter of the Fuerza Aérea Uruguaya transporting covid vaccines encountered a technical malfunction. The pilot had to make an emergency landing and the helicopter and the vaccines were destroyed by fire.
The three crew members were injured.
The accident occurred due to a “mechanical failure,” the Ministry of Defense reported and resulted in a fire that provoked total losses of the aircraft and the shipment it was transporting.
Each refrigerated box of vaccines contains 975 doses and the shipment carried in the aircraft was intended to inoculate people over 80 years old in the state bordering Brazil.
The helicopter was part of the distribution operation for the third shipment of Pfizer vaccines that arrived in the country on Wednesday night, part of the 2-million doses acquired by Uruguay and signed back in January.
The Director of Health of Rocha, Diego Pintado, informed to Subrayado that the Pfizer doses that were being transported in the helicopter to the department were lost, as there was a fire as a result of the accident.
