Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak crews flew over a thousand miles to medevac a 58-year-old man from a container ship near the edge of the Aleutian Islands earlier this week, Sept 29 into Sept. 30.
According to a statement from the Coast Guard, a Japanese container ship called One Majesty sailing approximately 58 miles south of Adak requested a medevac Tuesday around 6 a.m. The vessel master of the One Majesty was experiencing severe abdominal pain at the time, which the Coast Guard considers a medical emergency.
Two MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters responded from Air Station Kodiak. They flew roughly 1,100 air miles from Kodiak to Adak and then Adak to the container ship; that’s longer than the distance between Florida and New York City. The Coast Guard aircrew made two refueling stops in Dutch Harbor and Adak along the way and made a crew swap while meeting up with an Alaska Air National Guard HC-130J Combat King II and pararescuemen.
After the long journey, the crew successfully medevac’d the patient roughly 60 miles back to Adak. From there the National Guard transported the One Majesty’s captain to Anchorage where he was transferred to the care of local EMS personnel on Wednesday, Sept. 30.
The Coast Guard noted this was a “complex, long-range medevac,” that concluded as a lifesaving mission.
