Two military aircraft used in medical emergency at sea off Haida Gwaii Wednesday evening

The Waters off the South West coast of Haida Gwaii were the setting for a marine emergency on Wednesday evening, as the Victoria based Joint Rescue Coordinating Centre dispatched two aircraft to the location as part of a Medevac of a passenger aboard the Cruise Ship Celebrity Solstice.

The medical evacuation took place 28 kilometres South West of Haida Gwaii, with a CH 149 Cormorant helicopter and CC 115 Buffalo Airplane dispatched out of Canadian Forces Base Comox to the head to the rendezvous point.

As part of the medevac procedure two Search and Rescue technicians were lowered to a helicopter pad on the front of the vessel to prepare the patient for evacuation. Once secured, the patient was hoisted to the helicopter and flown to Port Hardy, then transferred to the Buffalo aircraft and taken further along to hospital in Comox.

A Cormorant Rescue helicopter was dispatched
Wednesday evening to attend to a medical emergency
on board the Cruise Ship  Celebrity Solstice

The Celebrity Solstice was on its homeward bound journey having just completed a tour of the Alaska coast, it has one final port stop in Victoria before returning to its base in Seattle.

The patient was last reported to be in stable condition in Comox hospital, no further details related to the patient's condition were listed.

For more items related to emergency service events on the North Coast see our archive page here.