French man, 62, survives 16 hours on capsized boat in Atlantic Ocean before rescue ‘near the impossible’ | World News
A 62-year-old French man survived 16 hours in air bubbles inside a sailboat that capsized in the Atlantic Ocean before being rescued in an operation described as “on the verge of the impossible”. “.
The 40ft vessel Jeanne SOLO Sailor sent a distress signal at 20:23 p.m. Monday, 14 miles from the Sisargas archipelago off Spain’s Galicia region, the Coast Guard said.
A lifeboat carrying five divers set sail to rescue the man, who has not been named, as one of three helicopters dispatched to assist in the search located the capsized boat when sundown.
The man responded to divers looking for signs of life by hitting the hull from the inside.
Photo: Salvamento Maritimo
However, at that time the sea was too rough to be saved, so the team attached buoys to the hull to prevent the ship from sinking further and waited until morning.
The man was found under the boat, wearing a synthetic plastic survival suit that was knee-deep in water, when two divers swam to help him out.
He was taken to safety and taken to the hospital for a check-up but was released shortly afterwards without any problems.
Vicente Cobelo, a member of the coast guard’s special operations team, told a local radio station that the man voluntarily jumped into the freezing water and swam under the boat to reach the surface.
He said: “On his own initiative, he went into the water and free-dived, helped by divers who pulled him over because it was difficult for him to get out in his suit. me”.
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Tracking data showed Sailor Jeanne SOLO had set sail from the Portuguese capital Lisbon the previous morning.
