Aviation authority green lights Swiss Post’s plans to transport lab samples by drone
Switzerland’s Federal Office for Civil Aviation (FOCA) has given the official green light for Swiss Post’s plans to develop a service for transporting laboratory samples between hospitals by drone. As previously reported by Post&Parcel, Swiss Post and the Ticino EOC hospital group and drone maker Matternet have been running trials this month (March), using drones to carry laboratory samples between two EOC hospitals in Lugano.
In a statement issued today (31 March), Swiss Post said: “Since mid-March, there have been around 70 autonomous test flights between the two hospital locations.
“The Federal Office for Civil Aviation (FOCA) has been involved in the project from the outset: it has inspected the drone and its safety components, defined the legal conditions for flying it, and now granted Swiss Post and Matternet approval for the flights.
“The partners will carry out further test flights until 4 April, after which an initial evaluation will take place. Further testing with flights is planned over a one-month period in summer 2017.”
Swiss Post added: “As soon as the drone meets all of the strict requirements regarding safety, practicality and reliability, the regular use of drones between the two hospitals will become an everyday occurrence. This is expected to be achieved by 2018.”
