A UK Coastguard helicopter crew medevaced an unwell crew from a Marella Cruises ship in Sandown Bay, Isle of Wight (Cowes, England) Monday night, June 22.
Shortly before 9:30 p.m., the Marella Explorer 2 reported to HM Coastguard that one of its skeleton crew onboard had been taken ill.
Coastguard Rescue 175 from Lee-on-Solent was scrambled to medevac the patient from the liner and after circling a number of times, took the crew member on board.
The casualty has been flown to Solent Airport for conveyance to Southampton General Hospital by land.
Marella UK's parent company TUI recently announced it would be extending fleetwide passenger shipping cancellations up to July 30. On Friday, June 16, Marella announced that due to the ongoing international travel restrictions forced by the pandemic, the company is extending its cruise cancellations (for the 4th time) through August 27.
This also means that Marella Discovery ship's entire summer season was canceled, with all scheduled departures from homeport Palma de Mallorca (Majorca Island, Balearic Spain) having been canceled - up to October 31, 2020.
The 3-day mini-cruise (themed "90s v 00s Electric Sunsets" on Marella Explorer 2 from Newcastle upon Tyne to Southampton (September 5-8) is also canceled. The itinerary included visits to IJmuiden Holland and Zeebrugge Belgium.
For more Marella Explorer 2 accidents and incidents see the ship's CruiseMinus page.