Coastguard helicopter fetches newborn baby

The national coastguard helicopter undertook a difficult journey last night to fetch a two day old baby from Neskaupstaður, east Iceland that had to be transferred to hospital in Reykjavik. 

A medical plane could not be dispatched to Neskaupsstaður due to bad weather. On board the helicopter was a nurse and a doctor. The helicopter set off at 17.38 yesterday and landed in Höfn to pick up fuel at 19:15. At around 21 the helicopter was at Norðfjörður but couldn't land in Neskaupsstaður due to extreme winds of 35 metres per second. 

The helicopter tried landing in Stöðvarfjörður but winds were also extremely bad there and finally managed to land in Breiðdalsvík. The local search and rescue team, Gerpir, brought the baby to Breiðdalsvík from Neskaupstaður and the helicopter flew back to Höfn to refuel and then finally landed in Reykjavik at 3:40 am. 

The day was a taxing one for the crew of the helicopter who had been taking part in the search for a missing man in the Ölfusá river from 13:40 last night. 

A storm raged in the East fjords and along the South coast of Iceland which made conditions for flight extremely difficult.