US Coast Guards stepped in to help this week when a 72-year-old man cruising on Princess Cruises' Sea Princess had a fall.
The ship, which was about 80 miles south of Juneau in Alaska, contacted the Coast Guard at 09.35. By 12.05 the helicopter was hovering over the ship and lowing a swimmer to help at the deck end of the operation and a stretcher so the man could be winched off and whisked to hospital.
The Coast Guard caught the whole thing on video - well almost the whole thing. We never actually see the stretcher being pulled into the helicopter. But apparently it was and the man is now is a stable condition in hospital.
Jane Archer
