Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of the popular Amazon.com shopping website and current owner of the Washington Post, was rescued by the Ecuadorian Navy after suffering a kidney stone attack on New Year’s day.

Ecuadorian newspapers and blogs, including El Universo and El Comercio reported that Bezos was flown by navy helicopter from Academy Bay in Santa Cruz Island to his private jet on Baltra Island.

The Captain of the helicopter, Juan Ibarra, is quoted by El Comercio as saying that Bezos was aboard a cruise ship vacationing on the islands. Ecuadorian Navy Captain Daniel Ginez Villacis, regional director of the islands Coast Guard said that Bezos was flown aboard his private jet to the U.S. for emergency treatment. Captain Ginez also reported that Bezos’s family and business associates sent messages of thanks for the quick rescue.

Bezos recently made headlines when he told the CBS News broadcast “60 Minutes ” that delivery drones could be dropping Amazon merchandise at customers’ doorsteps in a few years.
But on New Year’s day, it was humans, not drones, that rescued the entrepreneur, whose net worth was reported as $ 27.2 billion in 2013, according to Forbes magazine.

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