By Grant Warkentin
Featured image: A Cormorant helicopter evacuated the distressed passenger from the deck of the Serenade of the Seas on Sept. 14, 2026. From 19 Wing Public Affairs
Less than a week after 442 Squadron was called to evacuate a cruise ship passenger in medical distress north of Port Hardy, they were called out again on Monday, September 14 to evacuate another individual in distress.
Monday’s rescue involved a different cruise ship, the Serenade of the Seas. The earlier evacuation on September 8 was from one of the two Disney cruise ships operating Alaskan cruises this season, the Disney Magic and the Disney Wonder.
The video from the Sept. 8 rescue is now embedded in that story.
For the Sept. 14 rescue, 19 Wing Public Affairs says 442 Squadron “evacuated a passenger in medical distress from a cruise ship sailing 450 kilometers northwest of Port Hardy, BC.”
The squadron used a CH-149 Cormorant helicopter, callsign RSCU 911, and a CC-295 Kingfisher airplane, callsign RSCU 508, to respond.
RSCU 508 arrived first to coordinate the medevac with the ship’s captain and to provide over-watch for the incoming RSCU 911 helicopter. Two SAR Technicians were lowered from RSCU 911 onto the deck of the cruise ship to assume care of and prepare the patient for transfer to the hovering helicopter.
The patient was flown to Port Hardy and transferred from the Cormorant helicopter to Emergency Health Services care.
Video from 19 wing Public Affairs of the Sept. 14, 2026 rescue:
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