A passenger sailing aboard Royal Caribbean's Ovation of the Seas was airlifted to hospital after suffering a medical emergency while the ship was cruising off the coast of British Columbia.
The incident took place on August 9 when the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre Victoria received a request for a medical evacuation from the cruise ship. At the time, Ovation of the Seas was sailing approximately 100 kilometres northwest of Tofino, B.C.
To carry out the operation, the Canadian Armed Forces dispatched a CH-149 Cormorant search-and-rescue helicopter along with a CC-295 Kingfisher aircraft from 19 Wing Comox. Video released by the military shows the rescue teams meeting the cruise ship at sea and carrying out the complex evacuation.
The Kingfisher aircraft arrived first and helped coordinate the operation from above while monitoring the situation. Search-and-rescue technicians were then lowered from the Cormorant helicopter onto the ship's deck, where they assessed and stabilized the passenger before preparing them for transport.
The passenger's spouse was also lifted from the vessel in a rescue basket before both were flown to a hospital in Victoria for further medical care.
Medical evacuations from cruise ships are not uncommon along Canada's west coast. During the busy Alaska cruise season, hundreds of ships carrying more than a million passengers travel through the waters between Vancouver, Victoria and Alaska, keeping rescue crews at 19 Wing Comox regularly involved in maritime assistance operations.
