15 Sqn airlifts man off tanker
Date: 11 July 2009
An SA Air Force helicopter has evacuated an injured chief engineer from a tanker off the Eastern Cape coast, the National Sea Rescue Institute said yesterday.
NSRI Port Elizabeth station commander Ian Gray said the chemical tanker Bow Eagle on Wednesday sent out a request for urgent medical assistance for the 60-year-old man.
A 15 Squadron helicopter rendezvoused with the vessel, 26 nautical miles off Eerste River, south of Kareedouw, and airlifted the man into the chopper. The NSRI team discovered his femur was fractured.
"The patient is recovering in a Port Elizabeth hospital," Gray said.
In 2002, the Norwegian- registered vessel sunk a fishing trawler off the coast of Brittany in a night-time collision. Four of the trawler crew died and the Bow Eagle‘s duty officer at the time was later jailed. - Sapa
Source: The Herald
