In early April of 2025, Forces armées en Guyane – FAG (the Armed Forces in French Guiana) performed three medevac operations within forty-eight hours.
All missions were successfully completed by Cayenne-based Escadron de Transport 68 (the 68th Transport Squadron) ´Antilles-Guyane´, of Armée de l’air et de l’espace (the French Air and Space Force). The interesting fact is that, to perform the abovementioned operations, the Squadron used all three types of aircraft from its inventory.
Within the first mission a Fennec helicopter was deployed in coordination with Centre régional opérationnel de surveillance et de sauvetage Antilles-Guyane – CROSS AG (the Regional Operational Surveillance and Rescue Center of Antilles-Guiana). The rotorcraft was sent off the coast of French Guiana to save a man suffering from a heart attack aboard a merchant ship. Due to limited load capacity of the helicopter, the crew was forced to respond without a medical team on board. Despite that, the medical evacuation was successfully competed and, after arrival ashore, the patient was taken over by SAMU 973 team (Service d’aide médicale urgente – Urgent Medical Aid Service).
On the second day in the morning, the SAMU required an urgent medical transport of a suffering infant from a remote town of Canopi. This mission was successfully completed by a Puma rotorcraft.
Last but not least, a CASA CN-235 light cargo aircraft was involved in an unusual and sensitive task of evacuation of three pregnant women from Grand-Santi and Maripasuola. The operation, due to its logistics complexity and time constrains, was successfully performed before nightfall.
All the aforementioned operations were performed within permanent service duty of the FAG and the 68th Squadron. The Guiana-based transport unit of the French Air and Space Force keeps its medical evacuation unit in state of continuous readiness. It includes évacuation sanitaire – EVASAN (medical evacuation) alert to be realised with a Puma helicopter and posture permanente de sûreté – PPS (permanent security readiness) with a Fennec, as well as a CASA airlifter ready to support the rotorcraft if necessary.
The crews of the 68th Squadron are not only ready to respond a medical evacuation alert within their area of responsibility but can be also used in case of cyclone warning.
More information about the aviation operation in French Guiana can be found in our previous articles:
- Rafale fighters to protect Ariane 6 launch,
- ORSEC operation in French Guiana,
- Airbus A400M Atlas in equatorial forest – operation BUBO25.
All photos © Etat-major des armées / French Ministry of Defence. Information from the press releases of the French Ministry of Defence – published on the MoD page in April of 2025 – were used, in accordance to the etalab-2.0 licence.
