Poor visibility. Strong winds. A heavy fog along the way. When the California Air National Guard’s 129th Rescue Wing got the call that someone on a cruise ship more than 100 miles off the coast needed an emergency medical evacuation, conditions were already challenging.
The 129th Rescue Wing was called into action late on Dec. 16, after a 79-year-old passenger on the Ruby Princess cruise ship was reported unresponsive, according to the Air National Guard.
The Air Force Rescue Coordination Center received the call, and sent word to a HC-130 Combat King II, which was flying on a training mission. The plane, with the 130th Rescue Squadron, flew out roughly 130 nautical miles south of San Francisco Bay to where the Ruby Princess was sailing. While the HC-130 was getting eyes on the ship, a helicopter crew from the 129th Rescue Squadron took off from Moffett Air National Guard Base. With them on the HH-60W helicopter were three pararescuemen from the 131st Rescue Squadron.
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“The mission was approved as a high-risk mission going out the door, which is pretty rare for us,” Air Force Lt. Col. Ben Copley, a helicopter pilot, said per the 129th Rescue Wing. “This person was probably going to die today if they didn’t get picked up.”
Pararescue and air crews often are sent out over the waters to help people in crisis out at sea. Last week’s rescue presented its own unique challenges. It was the middle of the night and a heavy layer of fog cut visibility, made worse by a nearly moonless night. The Ruby Princess was lit up, but flying out to it was tricky. The helicopter crew flew using night vision goggles, navigating the HH-60W through heavy winds to get to the ship in the early hours of Dec. 17. Photos shared by the California Air National Guard show the cruise ship’s light casting an unearthly glow through the fog.
“We trained to find the boat. We trained to shoot an approach, to hold a stable hover, to hoist the PJs off the boat. We trained to do it all on night vision goggles,” Copley said. “We don’t train to do it inside a fog bank.”
After reaching the ship, the helicopter flew low over it, allowing the pararescuemen onto the ship. In less than an hour they airlifted the woman onto the helicopter. The crew then flew to San Jose to take her to a hospital.It was actually the second time in four months that U.S. forces carried out medical evacuations from that same cruise ship. In late August, the U.S. Coast Guard, along with its Canadian counterpart and the Royal Canadian Air Force, rescued two passengers from the Ruby Princess, while it was more than 140 nautical miles off of the coast of Washington state.
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