Earlier this month, the seriously injured captain of cargo ship Horncliff and some of its crew members had to be airlifted by the Royal Navy in a dramatic mid-sea rescue.

It all happened when the cargo ship, carrying containers of bananas and vegetables from the Caribbean to Dover, England encountered a force 10 storm (on a scale of 1-12).

The intensity of the storms caused some of the containers to start to roll. The captain and some of his crew tried to secure the containers, but failed and instead got injured and needed to be taken to the hospital immediately.

A mid-sea rescue attempt was organized right away. However, the storm was so intense, that the first attempt made by the Royal Navy, on the evening of February 1st, had to abandoned due to strong winds and swells (waves) as high as 24 ft. The Navy helicopters had to wait a whole night before attempting the rescue again. This time they were successful in lifting out the injured passengers one at a time and rushing them to the hospital.

While the crew did okay, the cargo did not fare so well. About 90 containers fell into the sea, and were seen bobbing up and down in the ocean, prompting the coastguard to issue a warning to ships who were in the area. The fortunate part is that the cargo was not toxic, so there was no threat to marine life in the region. As for the ship itself, it made it to port with the first mate (person responsible for the cargo) in charge.

The video below taken by a cell phone camera shows the dramatic mid-sea rescue as well as some footage from the helicopter cameras.