Moored between buoys in Hong Kong harbour, Eagle was on skeleton crew with the majority of her crew either helping local authorities with salvaging and search and rescue at the Hong Kong area of the Po Shan Road where there had been extensive flooding, fortunately I don't believe there were any fatalities that year, or else enjoying the delights of Hong Kong in the '60s.
Also in Hong Kong harbour, maybe a mile away, was an American aircraft carrier, the USS Bon Homme Richard. This carrier although stationary was at flying stations, launching jet aircraft by catapult, which then (presumably) landed at Kai Tak airport. These aircraft, which to the best of my recollection looked a lot like Mig15 but how the US navy came by several of those during the Vietnam war is beyond me... struggled to get enough airspeed to maintain flight but miraculously did.
All is peaceful onboard Eagle until one of our lookouts shouts "Aircraft ditched !". One of the Bon Homme Richard's aircraft hadn't made it and had crashed into the sea. Eagle was stood down but emergency stations sounded and 'SAR Crews stand to' blared over the SRE, myself and many others dashed up to the goofing platform to watch what was going on.
The two flight deck lifts were down to give those still working in the hangars the chance a bit of fresh air and because of that, safety stanchions and wire ropes were secured around the circumference of the lift wells on the flightdeck in the hope of preventing any mishap, (a step backwards is a step in the wrong direction ! ). The search and rescue helicopter was anchored to eye-bolts fixed to the deck for that purpose in the upper hanger's for'd extension, the for'd lift had to be manned and brought up to that level, the safety stanchion guard rails had to be removed, the helicopter pilots had to get ready and get from the wardroom right aft, up to the for'd part of the flightdeck, as did the search and rescue air crewmen.
The chopper with anchors removed and brakes manned, was manhandled onto the lift, and the lift driven up to the flightdeck level, the rotor blades of naval helicopters are folded back to enable the aircraft to clear the lift sides and to fit into the hangars, so they had to be swung back into position and secured, meanwhile the aircrew are climbing onboard and strapping in.
Once that's all completed the chopper engine is started, and with the air traffic controllers also closed up by now, the SAR chopper takes off and heads out to help with the rescue of the pilot from the ditched aircraft.
A couple of minutes later an SAR crewman is being lowered by winch into the waters of 'Fragrant Harbour' (a misnomer by anyone's standard!) with webbing straps to secure the pilot as he's plucked out of the drink and a lightweight stretcher in case it's needed and Bon Homme Richard's crew have just managed to lower a boat to go to help their buddy!