1/30/2013
By Ivan Pereira
New York’s Finest took to sea and air on Tuesday night to save a cargo boat captain who suffered a heart attack while docking off Staten Island.
The NYPD released video footage Wednesday of the dramatic Jan. 29 rescue of Captain Aly Akl, who anchored his 330-foot Panamanian ship in New York Harbor.
Members of the police’s harbor unit stabilized the 60-year-old Egyptian national on the vessel while they waited for a helicopter to come and airlift him to a hospital.
The copter lowered a safety basket and the officers quickly strapped Akl and lifted him up into the rescue vehicle. The medic who tended to him also was lifted into the helicopter, police said.
The captain was listed in stable condition at Staten Island University North Hospital Wednesday, police said.
