The Orbis Flying Eye Hospital: an MD-10 with an operating room
A FedEx freighter rebuilt as a teaching hospital that lands where eye surgeons are scarce.
Where it is right now
Loading live data…- N330AU…
Positions come from volunteer ADS-B receivers, so an aircraft over the ocean or away from receivers can be flying and still show as not heard.
There is one aircraft in the world with an operating theater in it, and it is a 1970s DC-10. The Orbis Flying Eye Hospital, N330AU, is an MD-10-30F donated by FedEx and fitted out as a flying teaching hospital: a 46-seat classroom in the nose, a laser treatment room, an operating room and a recovery ward behind it, all built into modular units that can be flown anywhere. Orbis, a New York charity, takes it to countries where eye care is scarce for two- and three-week programs in which local doctors operate alongside volunteer surgeons. Between programs it returns to the United States, and since it is one of the very few DC-10s still flying, its appearances on the tracker are worth watching for.
At a glance
- What it is
- McDonnell Douglas MD-10-30F, construction number 46800, a DC-10 with the MD-11's two-crew cockpit
- Donated by
- FedEx, announced 2011; entered service as the third Flying Eye Hospital in 2016
- Inside
- Classroom, laser suite, operating room, sterilization and recovery rooms in modular units
- Flown by
- Volunteer FedEx pilots
- Predecessors
- A DC-8 (1982) and a DC-10 (1994)
- Transponder address
- A395E2
Three hospitals, three Douglas jets
Orbis was founded in 1982 with a grant from USAID and a Douglas DC-8 donated by United Airlines, converted into the first Flying Eye Hospital. By the late 1980s the DC-8 was hard to keep flying, and in 1992 Orbis bought a DC-10, which it rebuilt over two years and flew on its first mission to Beijing in 1994; the DC-8 went to an aviation museum near Beijing. In 2008 United and FedEx offered a DC-10-30 freighter as a replacement, and in 2011 FedEx announced it would instead donate one of its MD-10-30Fs, a DC-10 upgraded with the MD-11's two-pilot glass cockpit.
That aircraft, N330AU, took five years to convert. Unlike the earlier hospitals, whose equipment was built into the airframe, the third-generation Flying Eye Hospital is a set of modular units, so the hospital could be moved to a different aircraft in future and the airplane itself can be maintained like any other MD-10. It entered service in 2016.
How a program works
Orbis spends about a year planning each visit with partner hospitals, then flies the aircraft in for a program of two to three weeks. Local ophthalmologists, nurses and anesthetists train on board: lectures and live-streamed surgery in the classroom, hands-on work in the laser and operating rooms, and simulation training. Patients are treated for cataracts, glaucoma, trachoma and childhood eye conditions, but the point is the teaching, so that the local team keeps working after the aircraft leaves. Programs in recent years have run in Vietnam, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Ethiopia, Zambia, Peru and Chile, among others, and the aircraft also appears at airshows and FedEx events to raise money.
The pilots are FedEx captains and first officers who volunteer their time, which is why the aircraft carries FedEx's expertise on a type FedEx itself retired in 2023. N330AU is now one of the last MD-10s flying anywhere.
How to recognize it
A three-engine DC-10 shape, with the tail engine in a straight pod under the fin, in white with a blue Orbis cheatline, "Flying Eye Hospital" titles and the Orbis eye logo on the tail. Few cabin windows, a cargo door forward on the left side and the stairs of a visiting hospital when it is parked. On the tracker it broadcasts N330AU, usually with an Orbis or FedEx callsign, flying from the US to a program country and back a few times a year.
Questions
Is the Orbis plane really a hospital?
Yes. The MD-10 contains a classroom, a laser treatment room, an operating room, a sterilization room and a recovery ward, built as modular units. Surgery is performed on board and streamed to the classroom for training.
Who flies the Flying Eye Hospital?
Volunteer pilots from FedEx, which donated the aircraft and supports its maintenance. The MD-10's two-crew cockpit is the same as the MD-11's, which FedEx still flies.
Where is the Orbis MD-10 now?
It spends weeks at a time at program sites around the world and returns to the United States between them. The live panel on this page shows its position or last sighting.
Sources
- Orbis International: Flying Eye Hospital program pages
- Wikipedia: Orbis International
- FedEx: MD-10 donation announcement, August 2011