The Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) used its state-of-the-art transport aircraft, the Airbus A400M, yesterday to help save the life of an infant in Sabah who suffered from a very rare congenital heart disease.

In a statement received from the military, RMAF pilots and crew flew a 2.5 hours flight from Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur for the 18-month-old boy to seek immediate treatment at the National Heart Institute (IJN).

"The transport aircraft A400M flown by Major Phanom from RMAF departed the Kota Kinabalu International Airport at about 5pm and landed safely at the Subang Air Base at 7.30pm.

"The whole RMAF community prays for the speedy recovery of the boy. Congratulations to the pilots and crew of A400M from RMAF 22nd Squadron for carrying out their duty to serve the welfare of the people," said the statement.

The boy, who was not named, was accompanied by family members Jimmy Juin and Junaita Sapit. Also with them in the flight were Dr Brandon Patrick Senagang and paramedic Mustafah Musa.

According to RMAF, the infant suffered from Infracardiac Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Drainage or TAPVD.

It is a rare entity which forms approximately 0.4 to two percent of all congenital heart disease, according to the US National Library of Medicine.

A400M is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft, which is among the latest in RMAF's arsenal.

The RMAF has acquired four of the planes so far, having received the aircrafts in stages from 2015 to 2017.