Passenger airlifted from cruise ship off Nantucket island

NANTUCKET, Mass. – A passenger suffering a possible stroke aboard a cruise ship had to be evacuated by helicopter off Nantucket.

Coast Guard video shows an aircrew from Coast Guard Station Cape Cod hoisting the 78-year-old man, strapped onto a stretcher, from the Norwegian Escape and up into a Jayhawk helicopter. The ship’s crew notified the Coast Guard about the man’s condition Saturday evening. The unnamed man and a nurse were air-lifted and transported to Rhode Island Hospital.

Coast Guard officials say the man was in stable condition at the time of the transfer.

The 1,069-foot-long ship was about 40 nautical miles south of the Massachusetts island at the time. In audio from the rescue, a male voice from the cruise ship thanks the Coast Guard crew, saying, “as always, an amazing operation.”