Aircraft carrier heli crew rescues drowning man
The US Navy has reported that sailors from the John C. Stennis Strike Group rescued a Malaysian man on 6 October in the South China Sea while transiting through the Strait of Singapore. The man was spotted by sailors onboard the USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74), a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, who immediately informed the ship's bridge.
The US Navy has reported that sailors from the John C. Stennis Strike Group rescued a Malaysian man on 6 October in the South China Sea while transiting through the Strait of Singapore. The man was spotted by sailors onboard the USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74), a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, who immediately informed the ship's bridge.
At 09:08 hrs the alarm for ‘man overboard’ was sounded and within minutes a rescue team from the ‘Eightballers’ of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 8 (HSC 8) launched an MH-60S Knighthawk helicopter from the flight deck.
Naval Air Crewman 3rd Class Taylor Child, the search and rescue swimmer onboard the helicopter, pulled the drowning man to safety at approximately 09:54 hrs. He described the rescue: “The whole thing was very surreal. I never saw the man until I was lowered down in the water near him. After we lifted him onboard, our crew chief assessed the man for injuries.”
The man said he was from Indonesia and was very thirsty, said Child, so he was given water before being airlifted to the nearby dry cargo and ammunition ship USNS Carl M. Brashear (T-AKE 7), where he was provided medical treatment prior to being transferred to the Singaporean Coast Guard.
Image: The rescue crew pictured after saving the drowning man (l–r): Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Tom Walsh, Lt j.g. Leah Jordan, Naval Air Crewman 2nd Class Taylor Child, and Lt Matthew Spence (US Navy / Mass Communication Spc 2nd Class Charlotte C. Oliver)