A cruise liner had to return to Bermuda yesterday after an elderly passenger was taken ill.

The Royal Caribbean Cruise Line ship Voyager of the Seas was 100 miles east of the Island when it had to turn around.

The liner left Bermuda at 3.30 p.m. on Tuesday on a transatlantic voyage to Madeira when a 91-year-old woman was taken ill overnight with chest pains.

A US Coast Guard helicopter and C-130 aircraft were scrambled to assist in a Medevac operation yesterday.

A spokesman for Bermuda Maritime Operations Centre said: “Considering the patient’s serious condition and with the closest hospital being back in Bermuda, the ship’s Captain elected to retrace his course back to the Island while the US Coast Guard arranged for use of a helicopter to expedite the patient’s transport to King Edward Hospital.”

The helicopter left the East Coast at 9.25 a.m., landing in Bermuda at 1.25 p.m. It then refuelled before flying out to rendezvous with the 1,020 ft. liner at 2.10 p.m.

The passenger arrived on the Island at 4.30 p.m. and was last night described as “stable”.