A 70-year-old man suffered a heart attack Sunday while on a cruise ship 20 miles out to sea and was airlifted by a U.S. Coast Guard crew to a San Diego hospital, an officer said.

The Coast Guard crew was called out to the Monarch of the Seas - a Royal Caribbean ship - shortly before 8 a.m., Chief Petty Officer Robert Lanier said.

The crew took the victim to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, Lanier said.

The ship was on its way to San Pedro from Mexico, Lanier said.