SINGAPORE – A crew member of a cruise liner, some 120km off the coast of Singapore, was airlifted by the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) to hospital on Dec 31.

RSAF search-and-rescue unit Rescue 10 was activated at about 11am on New Year’s Eve to evacuate the man, who needed urgent medical attention, a Ministry of Defence (Mindef) spokesman told The Straits Times.

The man was taken conscious to Singapore General Hospital (SGH) on an H225M helicopter, said the Mindef spokesman.

The patient is now in stable condition, making the operation the sixth successful Rescue 10 activation of 2023, the spokesman said, declining to give more details.

Pictures of the rescue, posted on the RSAF’s Facebook page, show the H225M landing in a grassy area near the hospital, where hospital employees waited to carry the patient off in a stretcher.

“We wish the patient a speedy recovery and kudos to our ground crew, aircrew and medical team for their seamless execution of the mission,” said the RSAF in its post.

Rescue 10 consists of air crew, ground crew and medical personnel who are on standby round the clock, every day of the year.

On July 19, 2021, a Rescue 10 team evacuated a crew member of a commercial vessel who was experiencing sudden memory loss. He was taken to SGH.

The next day, Rescue 10 evacuated a crew member from another commercial vessel who was having chest pains.

In 2019, the RSAF unit airlifted a diving enthusiast, who had drifted at sea for three days on a ring buoy after his boat sank, to hospital for treatment. The diver, Mr John Low, had no food or water throughout his ordeal and was beginning to hallucinate when the crew of a passing ship spotted him in the South China Sea on the third day and brought him on board.