KEA were based in Erbil, Kurdistan providing both medical evacuation and passenger transport services. With the rise of ISIS that summer, tensions were high and the need for our services grew.
On 17 June, KEA was contracted by a European government to provide extraction flights from the Baiji Oil refinery. Seventy-six employees of a multi-national company were trapped in the refinery and had no safe passage to exit the country.
Our skilled and brave crews provided the service at night under the cover of darkness, flying under Night Vision Goggles (NVGs). By daybreak the crews had tirelessly worked to bring everyone to safety.