Story By: Jonathan Macias, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

CEN/@salvamentogob

This is the moment a 49-year-old Italian tourist is airlifted from the deck of a luxury cruise ship by a rescue helicopter off the coast of Menorca.

The Costa Smeralda cruise ship was about 45 miles off the coast of Menorca in the Spanish Balearic Islands when the unnamed Italian passenger required emergency medical treatment.

In the video footage, the passenger is seen fastened into a stretcher as the Helimer 215 helicopter hovering above the cruise ship’s deck airlifts the man on board.

A spokesperson for the Spanish Maritime Safety and Rescue Society (Sasemar) told Central European News (CEN) that the ship’s doctor called the emergency services and requested that the Italian passenger be airlifted to hospital.

The reasons for the man’s hospitalisation were not disclosed.

The cruise ship’s medical team assisted the passenger until the helicopter arrived. He was then airlifted to the Hospital Universitario Son Espases on the island of Majorca, also in the Balearic Islands.

Local media said that the Italian patient remains in intensive care in a critical condition, although it is still unknown what happened to him on board the cruise ship.

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