Critical Care Air Transport Team

Critical Care Air Transport Team (CCATT) dates from 1996, when the United States Air Force formally established what has proved to be one of the latest milestones in the history of military medicine.

The CCATT is a three-person, highly specialized medical asset that can create and operate a portable intensive care unit (ICU) on board any transport aircraft during flight. It is a limited, rapidly deployable resource and a primary component of the Air Force's aeromedical evacuation (AE) system. The CCATT team consists of a physician specializing in an area such as critical care, pulmonology, anesthesiology, surgery, etc., along with a critical care nurse and a respiratory technician. The CCATT, with special medical equipment, can turn almost any airframe into a flying intensive care unit within minutes. The team is experienced in the care of critically ill or injured patients with multi-system trauma, shock, burns, respiratory failure, multiple organ failure, or other life-threatening complications. The complex, critical nature of patients in hemodynamic flux requires continual stabilization, advanced care, and may even require life-saving invasive interventions during transport.