Coast Guard Medevacs Crew Member From Cruise Ship, 290 Miles at Sea!
Just another day (or night) for the Coast Guard.
When a crew member from the Celebrity Summit cruise ship began experiencing severe abdominal cramping, a Coast Guard station in Elizabeth City, North Carolina launched a MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter as well as a HC-130 Hercules aircraft to assist in the medevac. The helicopter had to lower one of its crew members, pick up a nurse from the cruise ship and then hoist the sick cruise employee to fly him to a hospital in Norfolk Virginia. All of this happened at night, 290 miles out at sea.
I didn't know that helicopters could fly that far and back.
Video credit: U.S. Coast Guard
Jim Walker is a maritime lawyer who has attended seven Congressional hearing on issues of cruise ship crime, passenger disappearances,
We were disembarked off the Epic in March.Timing played a part in being taken to a hospital in St Thomas, but, if not there by the grace of G-d, that coudl have been my husband, being medevaced off the ship. Amazing footage..thanks
The Sikorsky MH-60 "Jayhawk" is a twin-engine medium-range search and rescue (SAR) helicopter, and has a range of about 380 nautical miles.
HH-65C "Dolphin", short range recovery (SRR) air-sea rescue helicopter is much faster with Maximum speed toping 184 miles per hour, and a range of approximately 409 nautical miles, but with much less load capacity than the MH60.
I hope he is getting the medical care he needs and is well on his way to a full recovery. It is nice to hear Celebrity cruise line is taking the necessary action to care for their best asset, their employees.
My Girlfriend and I were on the ship at the time. We were impressed by the way Celebrity handled an obviously difficult situation. The crew remained calm throughout this. We wish the crew member a full recovery and hope he can return to this fantastic team soon!