Drone Saves Patient on Jeju's Gapado Island... Emergency Medicine Delivered Through Strong Winds

Medicines Delivered to Island in Just 10 Minutes After Ferries and Helicopters Were Suspended
Public-Private Partnership Demonstrates Solution to Emergency Medical Service Gap

The Jeju Special Self-Governing Province and the Fire Safety Headquarters urgently deployed a fire department drone loaded with emergency medicines to Gapado Island, where all maritime and air transportation, including passenger ferries and firefighting helicopters, had been fully suspended due to severe weather conditions. This action was taken to save a female tourist in her 60s who was stranded on the island and suffering from fatigue due to running out of chronic disease medications. Demonstrating a significant solution to the emergency medical service gap in the island region, the drone braved strong winds of nearly 10 meters per second and completed the delivery within just 10 minutes.

Due to severe weather conditions, all transportation including passenger ferries and firefighting helicopters were suspended. On the afternoon of the 13th, personnel from the Jeju Fire Headquarters and members of a private drone consortium were loading emergency prescription medicines onto delivery drones at the drone delivery center in Sangmo-ri, Daejeong-eup, Seogwipo City, to rescue isolated patients on Gapado Island. Provided by Jeju Special Self-Governing Province.

According to the Jeju Fire Safety Headquarters, at approximately 12:07 p.m. on the 13th, a report was filed with 119 that a female tourist in her 60s, referred to as Ms. A, who had been staying at a guesthouse on Gapado Island, was unable to leave the island for the fifth consecutive day due to worsening weather. As a result, she had completely run out of her essential medications, including blood pressure and diabetes prescriptions that she takes regularly.

The 119 General Situation Room immediately assessed whether it was possible to dispatch all available emergency transport options, such as helicopters or rescue vessels. However, severe high waves and strong winds meant that all routes were entirely blocked.

In response, the situation room urgently contacted the Gapado Volunteer Fire Brigade and provided remote first-aid guidance to the patient through a video call with the 119 Emergency Medical Control Center, monitoring her blood pressure and blood sugar in real time. Meanwhile, with close cooperation with a medical institution on the mainland, the team quickly secured replacement medications and requested an emergency drone delivery from the Future Aviation Team, Department of Space Mobility of Jeju Province.

At that time, Gapado was facing gusts of up to 10 meters per second, and as it was not a regular delivery day, there were no professional drone operation personnel on standby at the drone landing site.

Recognizing the urgent need for rescue, Jeju Province immediately requested support from its collaborating drone consortium and urgently dispatched a veteran drone pilot from the province to the site.

At the drone delivery center in Sangmo-ri, Daejeong-eup, Seogwipo City, a joint public-private emergency response team from the fire and aviation sectors gathered and, after confirming a brief lull in the wind, quickly launched the drone loaded with medications at approximately 4:55 p.m.

Despite encountering severe crosswinds of 8 to 9 meters per second during its flight—which caused the drone to shake violently and face multiple challenges—the drone underwent real-time, precise route corrections guided by the control center’s video monitoring. As a result, the drone successfully landed at the Sangdong Port helipad on Gapado within just over 10 minutes from takeoff and handed over the prescription medicines to the waiting volunteer firefighters on the ground.

This successful emergency drone delivery of medicines to Gapado has significant policy implications, as it has demonstrated a practical public safety network for protecting the lives of island residents and tourists when conventional high-cost transport methods such as helicopters or ships are rendered ineffective by extreme weather, by integrating advanced aviation technologies.

Notably, the repeated medical supplies delivery drills and route optimization efforts that have been conducted since April 2026 in cooperation between Seogwipo West Health Center and the Gapado Community Clinic yielded optimal performance data by completing this sudden emergency mission flawlessly.

Namjin Kim, Director of the Jeju Provincial Department of Innovation Industry, stated, “Drone delivery, which was initially designed mainly for convenience, has brilliantly served as the only lifeline to provide medications to patients in an extreme emergency situation where both passenger ferries and firefighting helicopters were shut down. This has proven that drone technology can reinforce time-sensitive emergency transport systems in disaster and medical blind spots, and we will focus on further enhancing its performance.”

Jinsu Park, Head of the Jeju Fire Safety Headquarters, also affirmed, “Jeju Fire will continue to pursue the best possible solutions to protect the precious lives of residents and tourists, regardless of weather conditions. Through precise collaborative governance with relevant administrative agencies, we are determined to completely resolve any emergency medical care gaps in the outlying island regions.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.