- A cargo plane carrying 8.5 million medical masks landed on Monday at Paris-Vatry airport (Marne) as part of the "airlift" launched Sunday between China and France.
- A hundred gendarmes are mobilized - on and around the runway - to prevent these masks, intended for medical personnel, from being stolen.
The aircraft landed on the tarmac at Paris-Vatry (Marne) airport shortly after 2 p.m. on Monday. On board the Antonov-124 from the Volga-Dnepr company, 8.5 million medical masks. A cargo "a little sensitive", explains to 20 Minutes Colonel Gilles Cossas, second in command of the gendarmerie region of Champagne-Ardenne. It must be said that in recent times, masks - which are sorely lacking in hospitals - have been the subject of all kinds of trafficking. So, the gendarmerie does not skimp on the means to "dissuade people who would want to hijack a truck".
A hundred tonnes of equipment has already arrived Monday at Paris-Vatry as part of the "airlift" launched Sunday between China and France to deal with the coronavirus epidemic. A second delivery of 12 million masks, of all categories, is expected this Wednesday. In total, the two cargo planes chartered by the company Geodis on behalf of the State should operate at least sixteen rotations from Shenzhen and Shanghai over the next two weeks.
"Delinquency on cargo thefts"
A hundred gendarmes are therefore mobilized to ensure the smooth running of operations. The gendarmerie of air transport is responsible for security inside the grounds of this former NATO air base. The objective, for these soldiers, is to set up a protection bubble around the planes by preventing the presence on the runways of people who have not been authorized by the prefecture after having been the subject of an administrative investigation. The gendarmes of the Marne group, them, secure "parking lots, roundabouts, access to the airport", continues Colonel Gilles Cossas.
🛩 #PontAerien set up by @gouvernementFR:
Arrival of the first antonov-124 this Monday @Paris_Vatry with a delivery of 8️⃣ million masks from China, intended for nursing staff. pic.twitter.com/bL2TgPvEBO
Once unloaded, the masks are then transported to three temporary storage sites in the Marne. The trucks transporting them are escorted to the warehouses by bikers from the gendarmerie. Indeed, underlines the colonel Gilles Cossas, "there is, in France, a delinquency carried on the flights of freight, on the trucks, which is important".
The storage sites, specifies the officer, will be "guarded by the soldiers of the army, so that we are quiet". The masks will be sent to hospitals at the end of the week.
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