The AFM’s Air Wing scrambled the locally based Italian air force AB-212 rescue helicopter on Thursday evening to convey a Thai sailor to hospital from on board his ship.

The operation followed a message from Valletta Port Control at 10pm that the motor vessel TAI Promotion needed to medically evacuate its second officer, Li Fu Sheng, to hospital because of a sudden appendix condition.

The vessel was at the time some 35 nautical miles north east of Valletta. The officer was in hospital by 25 minutes past midnight yesterday morning.