'Flying eye hospital' lands in Arizona

Orbis Flying Eye Hospital, the world's only flying ophthalmology hospital, created by the nonprofit Orbis International, landed in Goodyear, Ariz., earlier this month to undergo "vital maintenance work" before heading to Peru, China, Mongolia and Ethiopia later this year, according to the company's website.

The Flying Eye Hospital comprises a teaching facility — complete with an operating room, classroom and recovery room — housed aboard a converted Boeing MD-10 aircraft.

"We go all over the developing world training healthcare professionals within the ophthalmology community. The nurses. The anesthesiologist. The biomed engineers. It's sort of the, 'how to fish philosophy,'" Bruce Johnson, director of aircraft operations for Orbis International, told 12 News.

Orbis' first eye hospital flew in a Boeing DC-8 in 1982. Over the last five years, the nonprofit organization has reportedly trained more than 10,000 physicians around the world and performed nearly 350,000 eye surgeries.

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