An HH139 helicopter of the 82 ° CSAR Center of Trapani carried out, yesterday evening, Friday 22 April, an urgent transport to rescue from the cruise ship "Oceana" a passenger suffering from bronchopneumonia with complications.
The aircraft, on the order of Air Operations Command of Poggio Renatico, in coordination with National Maritime Rescue Coordination Center of the Coast Guard, took off from Trapani airport at 21: 00 local, quickly reaching the ship, about 90 miles from Palermo.
The crew of the HH139 boarded the patient, a 60-year-old British citizen in need of urgent care, together with the ship's medical staff, and then immediately went to Palermo - Boccadifalco airport, where he landed at 22 pm : 55.
Here the patient was loaded into an ambulance and was urgently transported to a hospital in the Sicilian capital.
The CSAR (Combat Search and Rescue) Centers are among the flight departments that the Air Force makes available for timely interventions in favor of the population, with vehicles and crews ready to take off 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, without continuity solution and able to operate in any weather condition.
The crews of the CSAR service helicopters are trained in the recovery of personnel from any type of terrain, from water or from boats, even in extremely difficult conditions, with poor visibility and non-permissive weather conditions. This makes the CSAR assets a valuable resource in cases like the one that occurred last night.
