In Cape Town on the 24th of January, 2009 at 09h07 NSRI Table Bay and the Metro Ambulance and Rescue Services were activated by the Transnet Ports Authority to casualty evacuate 73 year old Hugo Kloser, from Switzerland, suffering breathing difficulties aboard the Container ship Dal Kalahari at anchor in Table Bay.
Pat van Eyssen, NSRI Table Bay station commander, said the ship was due to dock in the Port of Table Bay later in the day and had sailed from a European Port.
Pat said a Titan helicopter was to perform the casualty evacuation with NSRI rescue swimmers and a Metro rescue paramedic but a thick fog hanging over Table Bay had prevented the helicopter operation and NSRI Table Bay‘s rescue craft Spirit of Vodacom was tasked.
A Metro rescue paramedic accompanied the operation and a Metro ambulance was summoned to stand-by at the NSRI Table Bay rescue base.
On arrival on-scene the Metro rescue paramedic and an NSRI rescuer were transferred aboard the ship and the patient was stabilized and lowered onto the rescue craft using the ships crane and secured into a Stokes Basket Stretcher.
The patient, in a stable condition, was brought to the NSRI Table Bay rescue base and transported to the Vincent Palotti hospital by a Metro ambulance.
The patients wife remained aboard the ship and joined her husband once the ship docked.
It is believed that they are passengers aboard the ship.
Red Smoke Flare
At 13h50 NSRI Melkbosstrand were activated by the Transnet Ports Authority to investigate a suspected red smoke distress flare sighted off-shore in the vicinity of the Koeberg Power Station by an SAA commercial aircraft flight crew.
Rhine Barnes, NSRI Melkbosstrand station commander, said NSRI Melkbosstrand volunteers launched Spirit of Rotary – Blouberg and Men’s Health Rescuer to search in the thick fog after the SAA flight crew reported seeing smoke from a suspected red smoke distress flare rising out through the thick fog while the plane descended towards Cape Town International Airport (CTI). They reported the sighting and provided Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates to CTI Air Traffic Control.
Rhine said that due to the thick fog NSRI Table Bay’s rescue craft Spirit of Vodacom was summoned to assist in the search but that following an extensive search involving three rescue craft no sign of any vessel in distress was located and there were no reports of any vessel reported to be missing or overdue and the search was suspended pending any new information and the situation is continuing to be monitored.
