Amazon founder Bezos airlifted for treatment after kidney stone attack

Later yesterday Amazon.com spokesman Drew Herdener said in an e-mail, “Jeff got a good outcome. No surgery was required, and he’s feeling well.”

The New York Times suggested the Navy had delivered "same day shipping" and the package was 50-year-old Mr Bezos himself.

Bezos was aboard a ship traveling between the islands of Floreana and Santa Cruz, famed for their wildlife, when he became ill in mid-afternoon.

A navy helicopter met the ship at Santa Cruz and flew him about 20 miles to his private jet on nearby Baltra island.

From there, Bezos was flown to the United States for possible "emergency surgery", the navy said in a statement but later an Amazon spokesman said no surgery was required

"He had to be attended to in the shortest possible time," the navy said. The Galapagos are about 600 miles west of the South American coast.

Helicopter pilot Juan Carlos Ibarra told Reuters by phone, "They informed us when the ship was arriving in Academy Bay at Santa Cruz island.

"We landed our helicopter on a football pitch . They told us that a doctor was already treating him onboard the cruise yacht. They stabilized him and took him to the United States. He was conscious, but he was on a drip."

The navy said in its statement that Ibarra, as well as the helicopter co-pilot and flight engineer, had received messages of thanks from the relatives and associates of Bezos, whom it described as "such a prestigious, world famous businessman".

Galapagos National Park has many wealthy and famous visitors among the roughly 180,000 tourists annually.

Bezos, 49, is the 19th richest person in the world, according to Forbes magazine, with a fortune of $25 billion. The online bookseller Amazon, founded by Bezos, in his own garage near Seattle in 1994 is now the world's largest internet retailer.

Last year Bezos bought the Washington Post for $250 million.