ACS Time Critical goes above and beyond for urgent blood plasma delivery

ACS Time Critical went the extra mile for an onboard courier job that was ultra time sensitive, due to the consignment’s extremely limited shelf life.

Oliver Weigelt, ACS Time Critical’s Director, commented: “We received a call from a client that needed to transport life-saving blood plasma from Manchester to a hospital in San Francisco within a very specific timeframe. Making the job that little bit more complex, was that the plasma had to be kept cool and couldn’t be x-rayed at customs. This needed one of our onboard couriers, with the necessary experience to carry out this kind of medical transfer, so a member of our time critical team in Frankfurt jumped on the next flight to Manchester to wait at the hospital for the surgery to be completed.

“We then learnt that the operation to extract the blood from the donor was going to take much longer than expected. The only solution at this stage was a private jet charter to deliver the shipment in time. As part of the larger Air Charter Service group, we were able to contact the San Francisco office’s private jet division, who quickly sourced a Bombardier Global Express with last-minute availability in Europe, which immediately flew into Manchester.

“With the life-saving box in hand, our courier contacted security at the airport to prepare for a quick screening of the box, ensuring it was kept in the right conditions. He then called ahead to the pilots, advising them to be ready for an immediate departure. After a near 12-hour flight to San Francisco, we arranged for a customs agent to board the aircraft and expedite clearance of the shipment instead of processing it in the terminal.

“The plasma was successfully delivered to the hospital in San Francisco less than 13 hours after the extraction surgery was completed in Manchester.”