Helicopter pickup of passengers.
If I recall correctly, cruise ships crew numbers about one crew per two passengers.
930 Passengers (fully loaded)
465 Crew (guesstimate)
1395 Persons (Total)
How many persons can be picked up in what period of time?
Here is a rate guesstimation.
Chinook = cap 60, crew of 10, evacuating at a load of 40 evacuees:
4 baskets at once,
4 minutes per person packed and lifted,
= 1 person per minute per helicopter evacuated.
With 2 Helicopters hovering at once, and a minimum of two others offloading and refueling, this is 120 persons per hour, or 11-1/2+ hours for evacuation of 1395 persons if nothing goes wrong.
As it is spring, 12 hours of daylight was available.
I am concerned.
A big factor is the number of elderly people involved, in the rescue.
Some of these people have difficulty in getting in and out of an automobile, and will need a lot of assistance getting into a helicopter.
I am sure some won't do it. - Tom
Yes, this is very risky, even under the best conditions.
Multiple helicopters attempting to pluck a few pax at a time off of a pitching and rolling cruise ship with hazards galore in rough seas and high winds. The decision to evacuate this way means that the alternatives were even more risky.
Unlikely Chinooks or equivalents are available. More likely something like Bell Rangers with something like 2-4 crew and 6-8 rescue capacity.
Wow! Thank you so much for crunching those numbers. :)