Many years have passed since January 22, 1982 and few remember the story of little Jessica, eight years old. A little girl from Cagliari, hospitalized, who in a few hours, being already ill, suddenly becomes so serious that the doctors believe she doesn't have more than a day left to live. But one of the doctors suddenly remembers having read in a magazine about a particular German drug, an antiviral still in an experimental stage, the only and last hope.
It is decided to ask for help from the Decimomannu military base. It's evening, only the duty officer is there, no Germans, but the soldier decides to call the command in Germany to explain the story and the urgency.
From that moment a chain of actions is set in motion that will involve hundreds of people: the Central Army Pharmacy checks the location and availability of the drug. Which only exists from the manufacturer, based in Munich. The police enter the scene and go to recover the company manager, who was attending a theater show that very evening. The medicine is then taken to the Memmingen fighter-bomber base with an almost unbelievable relay: 130 km on ice-covered roads. The weather conditions are terrible, but a volunteer pilot is found, he is Lieutenant Jurgen Gundling. The Lutwaffe plane, which is called Rescue One, takes off amidst a thousand difficulties. The track is frozen, and it is decided to clean it as much as necessary to attempt the desperate undertaking. Not only that: Austria was asked for permission for the overflight, which was granted on an extraordinary basis given the emergency situation. There is a small life to save, there are no impediments.
Gundling manages to reach Sardinia, he does not know that - for safety - several airports on the peninsula (Trapani, Sigonella, Grosseto, Grazzanise and Gioia del Colle) are alerted in case an emergency landing is necessary due to the weather .
At Decimomannu, where the flight controller was called back into service, the pilot finds a runway without lighting, the rain of the previous days has submerged the light cables, so he uses only the radar, it is night, the visibility is terrible. But he succeeds in his undertaking. The carabinieri recover the medicine and take it to the pediatric hospital in Cagliari. Jessica is treated and saved.
An incredible story that is still remembered today in German military circles and that pilot was the hero for an entire night who had the courage to face a journey that seemed impossible.
