A commercial fishing vessel crew member in medical distress at sea near Cape Scott was transported to hospital in Victoria late Monday afternoon with the help of the 442 Transport and Rescue Squadron.
The vessel was 60 nautical miles (110 km) northwest of Cape Scott (northern tip of Vancouver Island) at the time of the call for assistance.
A CH-149 Cormorant helicopter and a CC-115 Buffalo were tasked to respond.
Crew member in medical distress rescued from fishing vessel at sea on Oct 31 #JRCC #SAR #CAF pic.twitter.com/xoYKcIUvpy
— Victoria JRCC CCCOS (@VicJRCC_CCCOS) November 1, 2016
The Cormorant arrived on-scene shortly after the Buffalo and two SAR techs were lowered onto the deck of the vessel to prepare the patient to be hoisted onto the Cormorant.
The patient was transported by Cormorant to Port Hardy then transferred to the Buffalo and subsequently flown to Victoria where the BC Ambulance Service transferred the patient to hospital.
His condition was unknown at press time.
The 442 Transport and Rescue Squadron’s Cormorant and Buffalo aircraft are the Victoria Joint Rescue Coordination Centre’s primary means for aviation and marine SAR responses in the Victoria Search and Rescue Region.
The Victoria SRR includes 1.4 million square kilometres of mainly mountainous terrain in British Columbia and the Yukon, extending approximately 600 nautical miles offshore into the Pacific Ocean.