NEW ORLEANS — Two anglers whose boat sank over the weekend within the Gulf of Mexico clung to an improvised float and fought off sharks whereas the third swam what felt like miles to seek for assist.
The swimmer, Phong Le, managed to discover a cellphone sign, and despatched a Google map of his location simply earlier than his battery died, he informed ABC News on Tuesday.
The three males had been within the water since about 10 a.m. Saturday — the sharks confirmed up Sunday morning, Luan Nguyen mentioned. One bit the entrance of his life vest.
“And I think that’s where I caught … these injuries on my hand,” he informed the broadcaster, which recognized the third boater as Son Nguyen.
“I took my two thumbs and jabbed him in the eyes, and he took off,” Luan Nguyen mentioned.
Even as the 2 males have been pulled from the water, they have been being circled and harassed by 4 blacktip sharks measuring about 4 to six toes (1.2 to 1.8 meters) lengthy, mentioned Andrew Stone, a seaman within the Coast Guard boat crew that rescued the exhausted pair.
“They were too tired to even be panicking,” he informed The Associated Press in an interview alongside different Coast Guard members and officers, none of whom referred to the boaters by title.
All three boaters have been again house Tuesday, the Coast Guard mentioned.
“These peoples’ will to survive and their lifejackets is what saved their lives,” mentioned Lt. Katy Caraway, a helicopter co-pilot who rescued Le, who was affected by hypothermia, after which flew all three to a New Orleans hospital.
She mentioned that whereas her helicopter was pulling up Le, the person who swam for assist, an airplane positioned the 2 who needed to struggle off sharks a couple of half-mile to a mile (0.8 to 1.6 kilometers) away. A Coast Guard boat based mostly in Venice rushed to that spot.
Helicopter rescue swimmer Richard Hoefle mentioned each boaters had deep cuts on their arms, and one was lacking the tip of a center finger.
In the hospital, he mentioned, one man informed him, “I was 100% certain my time was up” earlier than he noticed the plane that noticed them.
When the group’s 24-foot (7.3-meter) boat sank, it left them with no radio in an space with out cellphone service.
“We made a distress call on the VHF radio to the Coast Guard and let them know that we’d taken on water,” Le informed ABC. “And not even seconds after that, the boat was nearly halfway in the water.”
They tied two ice chests collectively as a makeshift float. One occurred to carry water and fruit, Luan Nguyen informed the community.
One man’s spouse reported them lacking about 10 p.m. Saturday, mentioned Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Keefe, rescue coordinator for Sector New Orleans. The lady didn’t know their launch level, he mentioned, and it took about 3.5 hours to search out their automobile in Venice, close to Louisiana’s southeastern tip, so crews would know the very best areas to look when daybreak broke.
Le mentioned that he swam off for assistance on Sunday. After swimming for what felt like miles, he obtained a sign on his cellphone and texted his Google map location to a pal.
“I see him trying to reply to me. And the phone cut off — I ran out of battery,” Le informed the community.
A boater’s spouse texted it to the Coast Guard, mentioned Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Keefe, rescue coordinator for Sector New Orleans.
Coast Guard boats, planes and a helicopter had spent fruitless hours looking out an space bigger than Rhode Island.
Then the screenshot arrived.
Using coastal contours, the command heart was ready to determine the place it was, mentioned Keefe.
The Coast Guard mentioned the lads have been discovered about 25 miles off Empire, a small group positioned alongside the final slender strip of the Mississippi Delta, southeast of New Orleans.
Le was rescued first. After the 2 shark-fighters have been lifted into the helicopter, there was loads of hugging, Hoefle mentioned. Until then, he mentioned, Le “had no idea if his friends were alive or dead.”
Once everybody was on the helicopter, the three Coast Guard crewmembers on the boat beneath might categorical their pleasure. “We were celebrating — whooping and hollering,” mentioned Stone.
“I’d say this was a rescue for the books for all of us,” Caraway mentioned.
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This story has been up to date to appropriate who was celebrating after the rescue. The boaters hugged contained in the helicopter, and the Coast Guard crewmembers celebrated on the boat beneath.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”