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BY BARBARA PALMER Two Air National Guard helicopters carrying three passengers evacuated from a cruise ship in the Pacific Ocean landed on Roble Field shortly after 2:20 p.m. on Wednesday. The patients, two males and one female, were transported by ambulance to Stanford Hospital. The Pave Hawk helicopters used in the medical evacuation are more than 60 feet long and are too large to land at the hospital helipad.
Capt. Timothy Perez, the public affairs officer for the 129th Rescue Wing of the Air National Guard, spoke about the use of the Pave Hawk helicopters to rescue three cruise passengers March 19. Photo: James Robinson The three patients, who all suffered heart-related illnesses, had been traveling on the Statendam, a Holland America cruise ship headed to Ensenada, Mexico, said Capt. Timothy Perez, the public affairs officer for the 129th Rescue Wing of the Air National Guard, which conducted the operation. It was a "strange coincidence" that three individuals from one ship had needed rescue for heart-related illness at the same time, Perez said. Two patients were diagnosed with heart failure and one with an aortic aneurysm, he said. On Wednesday evening, a 77-year-old female and a male in his early 60s were listed as in critical condition, and a male in his early 70s was in serious condition, according to the Stanford Medical Center office of communication and public affairs. The helicopters and approximately 10 crewmembers, including a flight surgeon, left Moffett Field, where the unit is based, at around 4 a.m. on Wednesday and traveled 550 nautical miles to reach the cruise ship, said Col. Ed Lewis. The helicopters were accompanied by two airplanes carrying fuel and were refueled while in flight. The arrival of the two camouflage-painted helicopters, which touched down within minutes of one another, attracted a small crowd of curious onlookers, mostly students. Jamila Saudi, a residence dean at Roble Hall, said she was notified of the rescue operation and that Residential Education staff had spread the word among resident fellows and students so that the sudden appearance of military aircraft on campus wouldn't be alarming. Some students, unaware that the helicopters were part of a rescue mission, speculated that the helicopters had been patrolling the area and had made an emergency landing at Stanford. "I looked out my window and saw that big gun," said student Chris Lynskey, who was in his dorm room at Lagunita Court, across the street from Roble. It crossed his mind that the military aircraft might be related to the military operations in the Mideast, he said. Some 129th Rescue Wing personnel currently are in Turkey as part of Operation Northern Watch military campaign, Perez said. The rescue unit conducts operations including picking up downed pilots behind enemy lines, he said. The three individuals rescued Wednesday from the cruise ship brought the number of people rescued by the unit to 298. "Never to my knowledge have we had a rescue of three individuals at one time, " Perez said. "Hopefully, we saved three lives."
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Stanford Report, April 2, 2003
