The US Coast Guard safely performed a helicopter medical evacuation of a 72-year-old man from Sea Princess Tuesday (June 9, 2009) noon. At the time, Sea Princess was approximately 80 miles south of Juneau, Alaska, near Tracy Arm.
The man reportedly fell Monday evening, and the ship contacted the Coast Guard for an evacuation at 9:35am Tuesday morning. At 11:52, Air Station Sitka (which provided this video) launched an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew, and by 12:05 they were over the ship lowering a swimmer who would assist on deck with hoisting the patient. At 1:37pm the helicopter had landed at Juneau and transferred the patient to the Juneau rescue service which transported him to the hospital.
"The crew of the Sea Princess was fantastic to work with," said Cmdr. Melissa Rivera, Aircraft Commander and Operations Officer for Coast Guard Air Station Sitka, "They were very professional and prepared to work with the helicopter."
The entire operation took only about 15 minutes, and this video - shot from over the door of the helicopter looking straight down to the deck of Sea Princess - is edited to compress it to only 60 seconds. You can see the swimmer first being lowered to the deck, the litter being lowered, and it ends as the patient is being raised from the deck.
The thing to watch is how incredibly well-coordinated the helicopter is with Sea Princess as it hovers over the deck. The cruise ship had stopped and holds its position as steady as possible. You can see how relatively little movement there is between the two in the video, but it's interesting to notice the speed of the current around Sea Princess. It can be seen as the helicopter moves slightly, and you can see it between the bottom of the door of the helicopter and the side of the cruise ship.
The man is reported to be in stable condition at a Juneau hospital.
