Video: US Coast Guard Medevacs Crewmember of U.S.-Flagged Ship off Hawaii

On Wednesday, the U.S. Coast Guard arranged a medevac for a crewmember of the Ocean Gladiator, a U.S.-flagged tweendecker.

On Tuesday morning, Ocean Gladiator was passing south of Hawaii on a long voyage from Baltimore to Manila when a crewmember developed a medical issue. The Ocean Gladiator requested a medevac from the Coast Guard, but was still too far out at sea for immediate assistance. At the time, the ship was operating about 540 miles to the southeast of the Big Island of Hawaii.

The Coast Guard's SAR center in Honolulu made plans to arrange for a helicopter medevac once the ship got within flight range. In the meantime, the crew of Ocean Gladiator monitored the patient's condition and reported back on his status.

On Wednesday morning, Ocean Gladiator approached to within 90 miles of the Big Island's shores. An MH-65 Dolphin helicopter aircrew flew out to meet the ship, and lowered their rescue swimmer carefully onto the vessel's starboard bridge wing. With assistance, the patient was loaded into a litter and hoisted up for transfer back to shore.

The Coast Guard's video footage of the hoist shows that Ocean Gladiator had unusual deck cargo for the voyage: two 87-foot Marine Protector-class U.S. Coast Guard cutters, approved for tranfer and repainted for the Philippine Coast Guard, along with a fuel barge. The USCG has been decommissioning the Marine Protector-class gradually as newer Fast Response Cuters enter the fleet, and some have been set aside for transfer to the Philippines.

Ocean Gladiator was built in 2010 and flagged into the U.S. registry in 2020. She is a tweendecker with twin 400-tonne heavy lift cranes, plus a third smaller crane forward. She has a capacity of 17,000 dwt or 1,000 TEU. The vessel is ice-classed, and is regularly chartered to Military Sealift Command for the annual Operation Deep Freeze supply mission to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. AIS data shows that the ship has resumed her commercial voyage.