Man to be air lifted from fishing vessel at sea
26 June 2019
The Rescue Coordination Centre NZ
(RCCNZ) received a phone call at 10.10 am this morning from
a fishing company advising that a large fishing vessel, 30
miles offshore west of Hokitika (West Coast South Island),
had a sick crew member onboard. The onboard doctor advised
the man required hospital treatment.
RCCNZ tasked Garden City Helicopters to airlift the sick crewmen from the vessel and take him to Christchurch for treatment.
RCCNZ Search Mission Coordinator Dougal Cockerell said, “The weather conditions are good so the helicopter will have no problem winching the crew member off the vessel and airlifting him to hospital to receive the medical attention he needs.”
RCCNZ is a division of Maritime NZ and
is responsible for coordinating land, sea and air, search
and rescue. It coordinates:
all major search and rescue
missions within New Zealand’s search and rescue region (
30 million square kilometres)
search and rescue
operations arising from someone activating a distress
beacon.
These incidents are termed ‘Category II’
incidents. RCCNZ also assists with other rescues when
required, and provide search and rescue (SAR) services 24
hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a
year.
ends