Upon his return to the country after concluding a visit to China, President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu made several announcements and revealed new plans.
These included matters not directly related to the trip, one of which was introducing an air ambulance and transporting patients to Thailand on a Dash 8 plane.
"An air ambulance to carry patients, God willing, will start flying on March 1. Not a helicopter, not a Dornier, work has now started on changing our Dash 8 airplane. That provides many benefits. In addition to coming to Male' in a short period from the northernmost or southernmost [atoll], even if [a patient] has to be suddenly taken abroad even up to Thailand, they will go on that Dash 8," he said.
Contrary to the President's claim, Adhadhu has confirmed through information gathered from various sources that the Dash 8 aircraft cannot fly directly to Thailand.
The Dash 8 aircraft was manufactured by Canada's De Havilland company. The planes were also manufactured by Bombardier Aerospace.
Four specifications of the aircraft have been manufactured to date, including the 100, 200, 300 and 400 specifications.
The national airline Maldivian's fleet uses the Dash 8-200 flight with a capacity of 37 passengers and Dash 8-300 flight with a capacity of 50 passengers.
The air ambulance service is due to begin after retrofitting a Dash-8 aircraft currently used by Maldivian, Adhadhu has learned. Below is the maximum travel range or distance of this aircraft.
- The range of Dash 8-200 is 1,065 miles or 1,713 kilometers
- The range of Dash 8-300 is 968 miles or 1,557 kilometers
Therefore, these planes cannot traverse the 1,996 miles or 3,165 kilometers between the Maldives and Thailand.
It cannot be done even with a stopover in neighboring Sri Lanka. The distance between Lanka and Thailand is 1,487 miles or 2,392 kilometers.
