Royal Danish Air Force evacuates infant from cruise ship MSC Opera near Bornholm on deep sea

In the evening of July 5th, 2009 at 22:00 hours CEST MSC Opera anchored on it's way from Copenhagen to Visby (Gotland/Sweden) awaiting a rescue helicopter of the Royal Danish Airforce, dispatched from the island of Bornholm, to evacuate an infant, who suffered unspecified head injuries after falling down stairs.

The video shows the Sikorsky S-61A-1 helicopter hovering by and passing the vessel while the pool deck was prepared for winching up the patient. All objects that could have be blown away by the thrust of the rotor downdraft, such as chairs and tables, had to be removed and finally the cables and lines suspended between the mast of the foreship and the chimney on the aft ship were let down to clear this obstacle. There were dozens of crew members preparing the operation including some in fire fighter suits with fire hoses keeping ready for the case of an accident.
All in all the proceeding appeared very professional and thorouhgly exercised.

Unfortunately the pool deck had to be cleared for the winching operation so it could not be filmed. Hopefully the injured is keeping well.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• MSC
• Opera
• Danish
• Air
• Force
• Navy
• SAR
• Medivac
• Rescue
• Bornholm
• Evacuation
• Salvage
• Sikorsky
• S-61
• S-61A-1
• Cruise
• Ship
• Vessel
• Baltic
• Sea
• Denmark
• Injured
• Infant
• Crociere

[Sicherheitsjunge]

Diesen Rettungseinsatz habe ich live miterlebt