An 8-year-old boy was airlifted from a cruise ship by the US Coast Guard in what his mother has described as an "unbelievable" experience — and it was all caught on video. On Tuesday, September 24, 2024, Daniel Jiang, who was on a two-week cruise from Vancouver to Hawaii with his brother and his mom, Nicole Jiang, started to feel sick.
It was only day two of the trip. The family learned that Daniel had appendicitis and needed to be taken to a hospital immediately. Due to foggy conditions making it hard to get him off the Royal Princess ship, the Coast Guard was called in to assist.
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"The doctor in the cruise said the situation is very [much an] emergency," Nicole recalled of the situation to Good Morning America. "Daniel got [a] very high fever and the situation [grew] worse and worse."
The Coast Guard dispatched a medevac helicopter "around 8 a.m." local time, with aviation survival technician Philip Morie, and helicopter pilot Lt. Katherine McDonnell. But the foggy conditions didn't make their task easy.
The helicopter pilot was on her first rescue mission. "We didn't have it in sight, which from 10 miles out, flying at like 300 or 400 feet … [it] was a giant cruise ship, we should be able to see it, and we couldn't see it," she explained. "We were like, 'That's unusual.' As we got closer and closer, we were out about 5 miles and we're like, 'Well, we still can't see it.'" Eventually, they found the ship.
Morie rappelled down from the helicopter in a basket to get Daniel, and then returned to get his mom and brother. "I closed my eyes," Daniel recalled. "On the way up, you know, I'm just still talking to the kid and, you know, giving him high fives and trying to keep him calm," the aviation survival technician added.
The boy was rushed to a hospital and had emergency surgery to remove his appendix. The operation was successful and he's expected to fully recover.
The next day, the rescue crew bought Coast Guard posters for Daniel. Daniel's mom has nothing but gratitude. "I don't know how to describe [it]," she said, adding that the experience was "unbelievable" and like a "dream."
Lt. McDonnell said the successful mission is "a pretty incredible feeling," with Morie adding, "It's a big win for everybody involved."
