I stumbled across this story today on
Cruise Critic.com.
CC is a huge site which has all sorts of information
about cruising.
There are "threads" for the different lines,
and I was looking at Royal Caribbean's.
There was one which was entitled,
"Airlifted off Anthem,"
and was posted by a member called newchappers.
The Anthem of the Seas is RC's
latest and greatest (but not largest) ship.
(That I might or might not be getting
ready to try out!)
The poster's father became very ill onboard
earlier today, and the Anthem was at sea.
Since immediate medical evacuation was needed,
it was necessary to helicopter the patient
off the ship.
Newchappers said there were lots of people taking
pictures of the rescue, and she was
hoping to be able to get some of the photos.
(Cruise Critic is quite a vast network of
cruisers--over 1 million--so it would be a great place to
make contact with other passengers on the ship.)
It amazed me that the picture taking had been permitted.
Jack and I were on a ship
which had a helicopter evacuation.
Quite different from this one, we were asked--
no, really implored--to stay away from the
helipad and even from the areas of the ship
which had any view of the pad.
I feel like the victim in that case must have
been deceased instead of ill.
Well...I'm tellin' you Cruise Critic is one big
network of cruisers.
One hour and 15 minutes after the original post,
a member called Frank1959 posted that he had
found a video, FILMED BY THE RESCUERS,
of the airlift!
I have goosebumps as I type this.
Incredibly, here it is:
Later posts from newchappers reveal that they are
from the United Kingdom.
The daughter, who is very afraid of flying, was
also picked up and said
"it was very traumatic being 'winched off'
the ship."
The father is in an induced coma in a hospital in
Lisbon, Portugal.
I've just never seen anything quite like this.
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have made it to the hospital!
Bless the heart of that man riding alongside!
And be sure to notice, as someone pointed out
in a comment,
that there are flotation devices on the bottom
of the stretcher!!!
P.S. My Cruise Critic name is Cruisin' Mimi.
Just in case you want to know.
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