Seafarer Survives 16 Hours In South Pacific Waters, Rescued By Coastguard

Rescue services in French Polynesia pulled off a miracle on Wednesday when they rescued a 52-year-old crew member from the water after 16 hours.

The Lithuanian engineer was serving on Gibraltar tagged cargo ship Silver Supporter when he fell off the ship on Tuesday.
His colleagues couldn’t find him on the ship and alerted the coastguard.
The coast guard turned the ship and retraced its path in order to relocate the missing seafarer.

lifebouy — Photo by belchonoc/depositphotos

The ship indicated that the seafarer had fallen after filling the ship logs at 2:00 am on Tuesday.
So the coast guard called for a reconnaissance aircraft from Tahiti to look in the area
The ship crew eventually spotted him South of the Austral Islands.

“He spent 16 hours in the water but his health is fine, except for some dehydration,” said the coastguard

The reason for the incident hasn’t been known yet while the ship went forward with its voyage The ship is now on its way to the Pitcairn Islands in Mid South Pacific.

Reference: msc.com