Plane Takes King Harald V Back to Norway After Medical Procedure in Malaysia

Europe's oldest reigning monarch, 87-year-old Norwegian King Harald V, has returned home to Norway after receiving a pacemaker while on vacation in Malaysia. 

SAS to the Rescue 

According to the Norwegian royal house, King Harald was hospitalized with an infection while visiting the Langkawi resort in Malaysia on February 27. The king was in Malaysia to celebrate his 87th birthday. After being forced to undergo surgery at a local hospital to implant a temporary pacemaker, the decision was made for the ill king to fly back to Norway. 

The airline tasked to bring King Harald home was the flag carrier of Norway, Scandinavian Airlines. On February 28, Scandinavian Airlines' dedicated Boeing 737-700 medevac (air ambulance) aircraft took off from Oslo Airport (OSL) bound for Langkawi (LGK). According to Flightradar24, the plane was forced to split its trip into two eight-hour flights due to fuel limitations. The aircraft stopped in Sharjah (SHJ) to refuel before continuing onto Malaysia, with the 737-700 arriving around 23:30 local time in Langkawi. 

On March 3, the SAS medevac aircraft began its return to Oslo, carrying King Harald. During the return journey, the aircraft again stopped in Sharjah (SHJ) to refuel. The King's journey back to Norway took a little more than 16 hours. The medevac aircraft that made the journey to Malaysia and back is LN-RPJ, a 24-year-old Boeing 737-700, which has belonged to SAS for its entire life. 

An Expensive and Uncommon Flight

According to information released to the Norwegian press by Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, the King's medevac flight cost Norway around 2 million kroner ($190,000). The flight cost will be taken out of the Norwegian national defense budget. For the most part, medical evacuation flights using large jet planes such as the 737 are rare because of the expensive nature of operating these kinds of flights. 

In aviation, the most common types of aircraft used for medical evacuations are helicopters for short-distance and small, private planes such as the Cessna 208, Pilatus PC-12, and Learjet 60. In Australia, the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) is a government-funded air medical service that flies patients with no access to medical services from remote parts of the Australian outback to cities and towns with hospitals and medical facilities. Other countries with similarly remote areas have similar air medical services, such as Horizon Air Service in Canada and AirMed International in the United States. 

In the past few years, there have been less than 10 instances of royals being medically evacuated using aircraft larger than small private jets. The most notable example was the coffin transport of the deceased Queen Elizabeth II in September of 2022. The queen's coffin was carried via a C-17 from Edinburgh (EDI) in Scotland to RAF Northolt (NHT) in the United Kingdom. 

After landing on March 3 in Oslo, the Norwegian government confirmed that King Harald V was moved to a local hospital in Oslo to continue the treatment of his illness.