A mother and her child in distress were airlifted by helicopter from a CCL-Carnival Cruise Line ship during a challenging Air Force rescue operation on Wednesday, May 8th.
The 920th Rescue Wing deployed two HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters, two HC-130J Combat King II aircraft, and teams of combat rescue officers and pararescuemen from Patrick Space Force Base in Brevard County, Florida, to reach the Carnival Venezia, located 350 nautical miles off the U.S. eastern coast.
Carnival Venezia left Port Canaveral/Orlando on April 26th for a 10-day Caribbean voayge.
The rescue required 3 air-to-air refuelings to reach the ship's location (satellite AIS position).
Dramatic photographs capture the moment when the unidentified woman and her son were hoisted from the ship's helideck into the aircraft.
A US Air Force spokesperson said:
"The patient was successfully transferred to a hospital in the United States.
"After 8 hours, and more than 1200 miles flown, the mission was complete when all of the aircraft returned to Patrick SFB."
For more Carnival Venezia incidents and accidents see the ship's CruiseMinus page.