Hawke's Bay Rescue Helicopter lifts sick crewman from cruise ship Maasdam

The Hawke's Bay Rescue Helicopter service has again been brought into an emergency involving cruise ships off the east coast of the North Island.

The latest was a long-haul medical mission to lift a patient in darkness from Holland America liner Maasdam early today as it cruised overnight from Tauranga to Napier.

Helicopter service general manager Ian Willmott said the ship, which has about 1500 passengers and a crew of about 580, was sailing around East Cape when the service was alerted about 3am.

A Filipino crewman was reported to have suffered a stroke.

The helicopter with two pilots, one crewman/winch operator and one intensive care paramedic flew to Gisborne airport to take on extra fuel, as a safety measure, and rendezvoused with the Maasdam 10 nautical miles east of Gisborne.

The paramedic was lowered on to the deck, to secure the patient on a stretcher before winch retrieval to the helicopter, ahead of a flight of about 40 minutes to Hastings where the mission ended about 5.30am.

The Hawke's Bay District Health Board was later unable to release any details on the condition of the patient.

Five weeks ago the helicopter service was involved in an unsuccessful sea and air search for a man reported to have fallen from the cruise liner Norwegian Jewel off the coast from Mahia Peninsula on December 29, soon after the vessel's day at Napier.