Coast Guard Airlifts Crewman 150 Miles Offshore (VIDEO)

The Coast Guard conducted a medevac of a crewmember off the 623-foot container ship Dapenghai 150 miles west from the entrance of the Columbia River Saturday.

Crewman being airlifted from the 623-foot container ship Dapenghai. (U.S. Coast Guard video/Air Station Astoria)

(SEATTLE) - In this video released by the Coast Guard, an HH-60 helicopter crew from Air Station Astoria, Ore., conducts a medevac of a crewmember off the 623-foot container ship Dapenghai 150 miles west from the entrance of the Columbia River. The rescue was completed Saturday, Jan. 17th 2009.

Officials say the rescue helicopter crew transported the crewmember to an awaiting Life Flight helicopter crew at Astoria Regional Airport.

Around 8:30 AM Saturday, the Coast Guard Air Station Astoria, Ore., launched an HH-60 rescue helicopter crew to the scene, after receiving a report of a 36-year-old male crewmember suffering a possible stroke.

Because of the distance involved in this rescue, the Air Station in Astoria requested assistance from the Coast Guard Air Station in Sacramento, Calif.

A C-130 search plane crew arrived on-scene and was able to locate the vessel. The C-130 crew stayed on-scene with supplies and aid to assure a safe transfer and transport of the patient.

The Coast Guard says the rescue helicopter crew transported the crewmember to an awaiting Life Flight helicopter crew at Astoria Regional Airport.

Here is the Coast Guard video with Tim King reporting for Salem-News.com:

Video

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Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor.
Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 in Afghanistan with Oregon troops. Tim recently returned from Iraq where he covered the war there while embedded with an Oregon Guard aviation unit. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website, affiliated with Google News and several other major search engines and news aggregators.
You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com