Passengers of cruise ship hit by hantavirus begin evacuating in Canary Islands

British special forces carried out a high-risk parachute mission into one of the most isolated places on Earth to deliver life-saving medical aid after a suspected hantavirus case emerged.

A team of six paratroopers and two military medics jumped from an RAF A400M aircraft onto Tristan da Cunha, a tiny volcanic island in the South Atlantic with no airport and only reachable by boat, in what officials described as an unprecedented operation, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Sunday.

The mission was launched after UK health authorities confirmed a British national on the island was suspected of contracting hantavirus, a potentially deadly disease. With oxygen supplies running dangerously low and no way to land aircraft, officials determined a parachute insertion was the only option.

The British military also dropped oxygen tanks and critical medical equipment from the sky, ensuring the island’s lone patient and its healthcare system didn’t run out of lifesaving resources.

“This was an extraordinary operation in incredibly challenging circumstances,” said U.K. Armed Forces Minister Al Carns, praising the team for delivering aid under pressure.

The mission comes as the U.K. government continues to work with international authorities in response to the hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship.

British nationals on board the ship will be repatriated to the U.K. on a special charter flight and will enter isolation for 45 days as their health is closely monitored.

Nobody among the more than 140 people aboard the ship are showing symptoms of the virus, the World Health Organization said.

Americans on board the hantavirus-hit ship will be flown to a medical center in Nebraska after health officials allow them to disembark.

The U.S., the U.K. and the Netherlands have agreed to send planes to evacuate their citizens from the MV Hondius currently anchored off the coast of Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands.

Officials have said that nobody among the more than 140 people aboard the ship, including 17 Americans, is showing symptoms of the virus.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official told ABC News on Saturday morning that federal officials currently do not plan to mandate quarantine when the American passengers arrive in Nebraska.

They will instead be screened upon arrival in the U.S. and either stay briefly at Nebraska’s National Quarantine Unit or return home to monitor for symptoms for 42 days while staying in contact with local health authorities, the official said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Passengers were seen disembarking the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) on Sunday.

Video captured passengers dressed in medical masks, gowns and medical hair nets as they left the cruise ship and boarded smaller boats off the coast of the Spanish island of Tenerife.

Spanish nationals were the first to disembark from the ship, though officials said passengers and some crew members of other nationalities will be evacuated throughout Sunday into Monday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Spanish nationals were the first to leave the hantavirus-hit cruise ship, which was anchored off Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands.

Spanish health authorities confirmed that the first plane carrying the Spanish passengers has departed for a military hospital in Madrid, where they will be under quarantine. Only Spanish nationals will quarantine in the country.

The cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions listed 13 Spanish passengers and one Spanish crew member on board.

All passengers aboard the ship are asymptomatic, officials said, noting that “this unprecedented operation is going as planned.”

Passengers from France, Canada, Netherlands, the U.K., Turkey, Ireland and the U.S. were to begin disembarking next, according to the officials.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.