A Coast Guard flight crew spent Thanksgiving rescuing a crew member from a container ship traveling past Unalaska.

The Kerveros was traveling along the Great Circle shipping route from Canada to China, about 100 miles outside Unalaska, when they called the Coast Guard for help Thursday morning.

Chief Petty Officer Sara Mooers says a 43-year-old Filipino crewman had fallen ill. 

"The crew of the Panamian-flagged ship told us they had located this man in his room unconscious," Mooers says. "They weren’t certain what the issue was, but he definitely needed medical attention."

A duty surgeon determined that the man needed to be medevacked off the 738-foot ship. Mooers says the Coast Guard happened to have an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew nearby in Unalaska, attached to the cutter Morgenthau. 

"The Morgenthau was making a port call in Dutch Harbor so the helicopter crew was actually on deck there," Mooers says.

The helicopter crew flew out to the Kerveros and safely hoisted the sick man aboard. Once they made it back to Unalaska Thursday afternoon, the Coast Guard crew transferred their patient to a commercial medevac flight. The man was then flown to Anchorage for medical treatment.

Mooers says the Coast Guard has no further information about his condition.