Important Facts For Prelims
Airborne Rescue Pod for Isolated Transportation: ARPIT
- 09 Jun 2020
- 2 min read
Why in News
Recently, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has designed, developed and inducted an Airborne Rescue Pod for Isolated Transportation i.e. ARPIT.
- This pod will be utilised for evacuation of critical patients with infectious diseases including Covid-19 from high altitude areas, isolated and remote places.
- Supporting the Atmanirbhar Bharat Initiative, only indigenous materials have been used to fabricate this pod.
- Requirement of an air evacuation system with facility to prevent spread of infectious aerosol from a Covid-19 patient during air travel was felt by IAF when the disease was declared as a pandemic.
Key Points
- Lightweight Isolation System:
- The pod has a transparent and durable cast perspex (transparent plastic that is sometimes used instead of glass) for enhanced patient visibility which is larger, higher and wider than the existing models.
- The isolation system caters for a suitable number of air exchanges, integration of medical monitoring instruments, and ventilation to an intubated patient.
- In addition, it generates high constant negative pressure in the isolation chamber for prevention of infection risk to aircrew, ground crew and health care workers involved in air transportation.
- High Efficiency Particulate Air:
- It utilises High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) H-13 class filters and supports invasive ventilation using transport ventilators.
- HEPA: It is an air-filtration system designed to capture at least 99.97% of fine airborne particles, dust, pollen, mold, bacteria, with a size of at least 0.3 micrometre.
- Cost Effective:
- It has been developed at a cost of Rs. 60,000 only, as compared to the imported systems costing up to Rs. 60 lakh.
