Sailor evacuated from tanker after bad fall

A 24-year old sailor had to be evacuated from an oil tanker yesterday afternoon after falling from a height of over three metres.

The Armed Forces of Malta said Mauk Phyo, from Myanmar, was on board the Maersk Bering about 20 nautical miles north east of Malta when the accident happened. Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is the largest country in mainland southeast Asia.

The alarm was raised by the Rome rescue coordination centre, which informed the AFM's operation centre of the incident at 12.15 p.m. The Second Regiment's Air Squadron dispatched an Alouette rescue helicopter, the Alpha-Sierra 15, under the command of Captain Paul Gauci, with Surgeon Captain Gino Bartolo on board.

About an hour later, by which time the vessel was about 10 nautical miles closer to Malta, Lance Bombardier Neville Cilia was winched aboard the tanker to stabilise Mr Phyo who was semi-conscious and was suspected to be suffering from spinal injuries and severe back bruising.

The patient was winched onto the helicopter and flown to St Luke's Hospital.

The army said that later in the day, its air squadron rescue-helicopter pilots "seized the opportunity to use the same oil tanker for training purposes".

As a result, Sergeant Norman Sciberras was able to perform his first stretcher-borne casualty-evacuation procedure from the vessel.