Two fishermen fought off sharks after their boat sank off the Louisiana coast whereas a 3rd swam to seek for assist.
The swimmer, Phong Le, managed to seek out cellphone sign and despatched a Google map of his location simply earlier than his battery died, he informed ABC News.
The trio had been stranded at sea for 28 hours in shark-infected waters earlier than being rescued.
Luan Nguyen mentioned he and his buddies had been within the water since round 10am on Saturday and the predators confirmed up on Sunday morning. He mentioned one bit the entrance of his life jacket.
“I punched him in the face. And I think that’s where I caught… these injuries on my hand. I took my two thumbs and jabbed him in the eyes, and he took off,” he mentioned.
The third man was recognized as Son Nguyen.
When the group’s 24ft-long (7.3-metre) boat sunk, they had been left 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,” Mr Le informed ABC. “And not even seconds after that, the boat was nearly halfway in the water.”
They tied two cool containers collectively as a makeshift float and one held water and fruit, Mr Nguyen mentioned.
Mr Le mentioned he swam off for assistance on Sunday and after swimming for what felt like miles, he discovered 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,” Mr Le mentioned.
A fisherman’s spouse reported them lacking round 10pm on Saturday, mentioned Lieutenant Commander Kevin Keefe, rescue coordinator for Sector New Orleans.
The girl didn’t know the launch level and he mentioned it took round 3.5 hours to seek out their car in Venice, close to Louisiana’s southeastern tip, so crews would know one of the best areas to go looking when daybreak broke.
Coast Guard boats, planes and a helicopter had spent fruitless hours looking an space bigger than Rhode Island earlier than the Google Maps screenshot arrived.
Using coastal contours, the command centre was in a position to determine the place it was, mentioned Lt Cmdr Keefe.
The Coast Guard mentioned the 2 males had been discovered round 25 miles off Empire, a small neighborhood situated alongside the final slim strip of the Mississippi Delta, southeast of New Orleans.
Mr Le was rescued first.
Even as the 2 different males had been pulled from the water and lifted right into a helicopter they had been being circled and harassed by 4 blacktip sharks measuring round 4-6ft (1.2-1.8m) lengthy, mentioned Andrew Stone, who was within the Coast Guard boat crew that rescued the exhausted pair.
“They were too tired to even be panicking,” he mentioned.
All three fishermen went house on Tuesday, the Coast Guard mentioned.
Source: information.sky.com”