The cargo plane has been converted into a mobile eye hospital.
Orbis Flying Eye Hospital is an international charity whose mission is to fight avoidable blindness. The airborne hospital is run by volunteers and provides teaching and support to eye care professionals in areas that lack funding and teaching facilities.
The aircraft, a cargo plane donated by FedEx, is equipped with operating rooms, classrooms and recovery rooms, as well as an audio-visual system that can live-stream surgeries in 3D and enable ophthalmic simulation training. Flying Eye Hospital has provided training in more than 95 countries to date, as well as online live lectures and live surgery on its telemedicine platform Cybersight.
According to the World Health Organization, approximately 2.2 billion people worldwide have visual impairment. In about half of the cases, the damage was avoidable or unresolved.