SICK MAN FLOWN FROM SHIP

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24401, 30 October 1944, Page 6

SICK MAN FLOWN FROM SHIP

* RESCUE MISSION OF AIR FORCE FLYING BOAT PATIENT TAKEN TO HOSPITAL AT AUCKLAND (P.A.) WELLINGTON, October 28. There was a dramatic race against time last night and in the early hours of this morning when the Royal New Zealand Air Force and the Royal New Zealand Navy co-operated in picking up an American sailor with a burst appendix from a small naval vessel more than 100 miles from land. Shortly before 9 a.m. yesterday the Royal New Zealand Air Force base at Hobsonville was asked-if it could get a flying-boat out to pick up a sailor from a vessel which was then more than 200 miles from Hobsonville. The sailor’s life was in grave danger if he could not receive expert medicar attention quickly. Although Hobsonville had only a stored reserve aircraft available, the 'ground staff worked all night to put a Catalina flyingrboat in readiness for a dawn take-off. The aircraft had to be brought from the store more than a quarter of. a mile from the landing apron and had to be fuelled, checked, and tested. Meanwhile, the Navy was keeping touch with the American vessel by wireless and provided a naval doctor, who was picked up from Auckland by launch at 3.30 a.m. The flying-boat crew was assembled from various Air Force units, with Flying Officer D. S. Beauchamp, D.F.C.. Dannevirke, who previously had participated in air-sea rescues in the Pacific, as captain. Shortly after 5.30 a.m, the aircraft taxied off, carrying the Navy doctor and a R.N.Z.A.F nurse from Hobsonville. The ship was sighted about 7.30 and the Catalina landed a few minutes later. The doctor and nurse were soon aboard the ship, when the difficult task of transferring the patient began. This took just over an hour, the Catalina setting a course for Auckland at 8.40. The aircraft landed at 10.10 in Mechanics’ Bay, where a launch was waiting to transfer the patient to an ambulance, at the landing steps. A few minutes.later the sailor was on his way to hospital, where his condition was later reported to be satisfactory. The doctor said that the whole thing went like clockwork. The transfer of the patient from ship to aircraft could not have beetr managed better.