The Coast Guard on Thursday performed another long-distance medevac of a crewman who fell ill while aboard a freighter in the North Pacific.
The 20-year-old unidentified male cadet from the Maine Maritime Academy apparently suffered from a case of pneumonia.
The 712-foot container ship M/V Maunawili was approximately 700 miles south of Cold Bay when the vessel’s crew requested a medevac.
Petty Officer Seth Caron, watchstander at the Coast Guard Command Center in Juneau, said they dispatched two H-60 helicopters and a C-130 aircraft out of Kodiak. The freighter headed north to shorten the distance to Alaska, and then one of the helicopters flew south to rendezvous with the vessel.
The second helicopter remained on standby in Cold Bay for “self-rescue” — in case the first helicopter was forced down and its crew also needed a rescue. The C-130 circled high overhead the freighter as a communications platform.
Caron said the sick crewman was flown to Cold Bay where a Guardian flight then transported him to Providence Hospital in Anchorage.
The Coast Guard usually performs a handful of long-distance medevacs of sick or injured freighter crewman each year in the North Pacific, and they usually require multiple aircraft and crews.
