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Stornoway, Lewis
Long distance mission for coastguard helicopter 9/11/11
A sick Royal Navy seaman has been winched off a British submarine after a long distance rescue in the Atlantic today.
Stornoway coastguard rescue helicopter fly nearly 1,000 miles to complete the emergency mission which took ten hours after starting well before dawn this morning.
The crew man fell ill, apparently suffering abdominal pains which required urgent hospital attention, when the submerged submarine was 200 miles west off Erris Head, County Mayo.
The coastguard aircraft took off at 5.30am and refuelled at the nearest landfall to the submarine.
The sailor was winched off the surfaced submarine as its captain steered into the stiff south westerly wind in an effort to safely control the airlift operation around 10am.
With its fuel tank nearly running on empty for the second time during the incident, the helicopter headed back to Ireland and refuelled at Silgo.
It then flew the casualty to hospital in Glasgow before returning back on station in Stornoway at 3.20pm.