Ministry of National Defense Republic of Korea

Republic of Korea deploys military aircraft to Myanmar to receive surgical gowns

First mission to bring protective supplies from abroad  
Ministry of National Defense able to simplify the process of quarantines after tug-of-war consultations with Myanmar

Supplies that arrived on Friday will be sent to medical facilities across the country  

For the first time in its history, the Ministry of National Defense has engaged in the urgent transportation of commercial goods to overcome the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). On March 18, the ministry reported that it had rushed to deploy two Air Force C-130J transport aircraft to Myanmar for the delivery of protective supplies. This marks the first time that military transport aircraft have been mobilized to bring commercial goods into the nation.

The aircraft will return from Myanmar with 80,000 sets of surgical gowns. These surgical gowns will be sent to medical facilities across the country, including in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, which have the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Korea. Currently, single-use surgical gowns are used at COVID-19 screening centers.

With the Ministry of Health and Welfare having planned to import surgical gowns from Myanmar, a crisis resulted when commercial goods could not be brought in due to the unexpected suspension of national air carriers that took place on March 9. So the ministry took a drastic measure by deploying military transport aircraft to bring in protective supplies as quickly as possible, considering the urgent domestic situation in the wake of the spread of COVID-19.

But the transportation did not go smoothly. Following its prohibition on the entry of passengers and crew members arriving from Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, Myanmar announced that it would also impose 14-day quarantines on all people arriving from South Gyeongsang Province. This restricted the entry to Myanmar of crew members on board the transport aircraft, which had departed from Gimhae. After consultations with the Myanmar government, the ministry was able to simplify the process of quarantine under the condition that “all crew members on board the transport aircrafts departing for Myanmar from Gimhae should submit a health certificate and carry out their missions only within the local airport.”

Aside from this, the ministry was plagued by tug-of-war negotiations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Aviation Administration, and Myanmar Customs, as it is an unprecedented situation for military transport aircraft to be deployed to bring commercial goods into the country, a situation has was worsened following the World Health Organization’s (WHO) declaration of a pandemic. “This transportation of non-military supplies by deploying military transport aircraft in response to an urgent domestic situation is a first in the history of the ROK military. It also has great significance, in that close cooperation between the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs contributed to turning an impossible situation into a success story, despite many adverse conditions,” an official from the ministry said.

The Air Force transport aircraft that departed to Myanmar from Gimhae Airport on Wednesday morning will arrive at Seoul Gimpo Airport after about 21 hours, at dawn on Thursday, while the protective supplies brought from Myanmar will be sent to a company’s warehouse.

“While it is a hard schedule for us to make a round-trip flight within two nights without sleep over a distance of two nights and three days, we aren’t even thinking of that, as we will be able to help medical workers in the field who are directly treating patients,” said Lee Deok-hee, soon to be promoted to colonel rank, who is in charge of controlling missions as a commander of the Air Operations Unit of the 5th Air Mobility Wing. He added, “We feel a sense of satisfaction and pride from having a chance to do our share in a national crisis.”

By Su-Yeol, Maeng <guns13@dema.mil.kr >