updated 8:41 p.m. ET March 2, 2008

MIAMI - The Coast Guard in Miami says it has plucked two ailing passengers from a cruise ship that was south of Cuba.

Coast Guard officials say the 88-year-old man and 80-year-old woman were airlifted from the Holland America cruise ship Westerdam when the ship was about 80 miles south of the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay.

Officials say a Coast Guard helicopter crew hoisted the two passengers late Friday. The man was taken to the Guantanamo Bay hospital and the woman was flown to a hospital in Miami.

A spokesman for the Holland America Line is declining to comment.

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