Bone begins Ukraine air rescue missions

After a successful crossing last week in N140BV from Apalachicola to Mainz, Germany, pilot John Bone has been busy with the Ukraine Air Rescue.

His mission was to deliver 150 Ukraine Army Medic Backpacks, seven boxes of time sensitive drugs and 500 personal medical kits to Mielec, Poland located close to the Ukraine border. 

Selected for the flight was Bone’s Cirrus SR22 and Manfred Grabbe’s TBM 20.  Grabbe carried the Medic Kits and Bone carried the drugs and first aid kits. 

The seats on the return flight are offered to several non-governmental organizations to transport refugees that might need medical care back to Germany. 

Bone’s passengers were Ihor Bystrevsky, a Ukraine infantry officer who had his left leg blown off by a Russian rocket, together with his wife Kudina Polina. One of the NGOs had arranged for Ihor to have a prosthetic at a special clinic located in Laupheim, Germany.  Bone flew them four hours from Mielec to Laupheim, the first time either of them had been in an airplane.

Bone left Friday, July 1 to join the Ukraine Air Rescue Group, departing from the Apalachicola Regional Airport for Germany in his Cirrus SR22, N140BV. The plane will be based at the historic Bonn-Hangler Field located just south of Cologne, Germany.

Bone, a CIrrus Standardized Instructor Pilot, has as his primary mission to fly medical supplies into Rzeszow, Poland, and Ukraine refugees back to various locations in Germany for medical attention.

With the installation of a 66-gallon Turtlepack in the aft cabin, the SR22 made four stops from Florida to Germany: at the North Bay/Jack Garland Airport in North Bay, Ontario, Canada; at the Iqaluit Airport that serves Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada; at the Reykjavík Airport serving Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland; and at Bonn-Hangler Field in Germany. The Turtlepack will be removed after arrival in Germany.

Ukraine Air Rescue was founded by private pilots in March 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army. On its website, it describes its goal “to fly medicines and medical supplies to the Ukrainian border quickly and unbureaucratically using private aircraft. From there, helpers take them directly to where they are needed, for example, to clinics. On the return flight, we bring people in need of help back from Ukraine to safe countries.”