Evacuations by helicopter from cruise ships have become fairly common, but seeing them, especially from these unique vantage points, makes you realize what a delicate operation it is. While some of us may have seen this from the deck of a cruise ship, most of us would never have the opportunity to see the operation from these perspectives, if it were not for tiny video cameras.
On November 29 (2008) the Coast Guard evacuated a 61-year-old man with a medical condition, and his wife, from Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas while it was 130 miles east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
In this video provided by the Coast Guard, shot from a camera above the door of the helicopter, you can see the man and his wife being hoisted from the deck of the ship while the helicopter hovers 180 feet above the ocean. In the third of the sequence (in very raw footage), you see the whole operation shot from another aircraft a few hundred feet away.
