SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Red Crescent Authority set to transport injured pilgrims by helicopter at this year's haj pilgrimage

Record ID: 188801

  • Title: SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Red Crescent Authority set to transport injured pilgrims by helicopter at this year's haj pilgrimage
  • Date: 20th October 2011
  • Summary: CLOSE OF COMPUTER SCREEN
  • Embargoed: 4th November 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia
  • Country: Saudi Arabia
  • Topics: Health,Religion,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVAD3ZH9AXU8QLNUHXMVST4B3L5O
  • Story Text: The Saudi Red Crescent Authority (SRCA)'s Air Ambulance unit will air lift injured pilgrims during haj in Mecca where some 3 million pilgrims are expected to congregate.
    The annual haj is one of the world's biggest religious gatherings, bringing together millions of pilgrims in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam.
    "Five helicopters will be working 24 hours a day," explained the Director of Security and Safety for Air Ambulance Captain Fawaz al-Shammari.
    "We formulated a complete operations plan, and surveyed the area, and identified locations for landing at night," he said.
    The new service will have air ambulances in places on the roads linking the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
    "We concentrated most of all on highways. The various services, such as the road security service and traffic police, secure the locations for us, so if we are due to land somewhere, it will be in coordination with these services," said Captain Mohammad Attiya, Director of Saudi Red Crescent Authority Air Ambulance in Jeddah.
    "The most important thing we focus on is what is called the 'Golden hour,' the best time for transferring patients," he said.
    As pilgrim numbers have shot up over the past three decades, staging a safe haj has become crucial for Saudi Arabia.
    A series of disasters have claimed hundreds of lives during haj since 1990, including fires, stampedes, hotel collapses and clashes between police and pilgrims staging political protests.
    Last year, the government unveiled a haj train linking the holy sites in and around Mecca that cost $1.8 billion to build and which will be only used for less than a week a year.
    The pilgrimage itself takes at least six days, starting on the 8th day of the lunar month of Dhul Hijja, which falls this year in early November. But most pilgrims come earlier and first perform the rites of the umra, or lesser pilgrimage, which are confined to central Mecca.
    The haj itinerary takes pilgrims out of Mecca to the plain of Arafat about 10 miles to the east, where they spend the afternoon of the second day. They then return to Mecca in stages, stopping on the way to throw pebbles at a wall, representing defiance of the devil. In Mecca they repeat the rites of the umra, including the circumambulation of the Kaaba, the cube-shaped stone shrine at the centre of the Grand Mosque.
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