A Danish national onboard the Danish-registered cargo vessel GEORG MAERSK, was urgently medically evacuated (MEDEVAC) earlier yesterday afternoon by an Italian Air Force rescue-helicopter of the Italian Military Mission (IMM) in Malta.
At about 1:20pm, the cargo vessel’s ship-agents relayed to the Armed Forces of Malta’s operations centre at Luqa Barracks the need for the vessel’s chief steward, 62-year old Jens-Christian Raassi-Anderson, to be medically evacuated to hospital as he was suffering from severe chest pains and a headache with high blood pressure.
The GEORG MAERSK was at the time located some 57.5 nautical miles from Malta, and was instructed to steer a course closer to Malta.
The IMM’s AB-212 search-and-rescue helicopter, operated by a joint Italo-Maltese crew, was immediately scrambled to the air to perform the medevac-operation.
In rough weather conditions of force 5 to 6 easterly winds, the large cargo ship was positioned some 37 nautical miles from Malta by the time the helicopter reached it. Raassi-Anderson was later landed at the Mater Dei Hospital’s helipad at 3:35pm and rushed for urgent emergency medical treatment.