Cargo crewman rescued after 16 hours in South Pacific
The engineer from Lithuania was reported missing on Tuesday morning by colleagues
PAPEETE (AFP) - A 52-year-old crewman who fell off a cargo ship in the remote South Pacific has cheated death after being plucked from the water alive 16 hours later, rescue services in French Polynesia said on Wednesday.
The engineer from Lithuania was reported missing on Tuesday morning by colleagues on the Gibraltar-flagged Silver Supporter vessel who alerted the coastguard and turned the ship around to retrace their route.
The coastguard in Tahiti sent a reconnaissance aircraft to scour the area where they calculated the man might be located, having fallen in some time after filling in his ship logs at 2:00 am on Tuesday.
He was eventually spotted by crew on the Silver Supporter south of the Austral Islands in the late evening.
"He spent 16 hours in the water but his health is fine, except for some dehydration," said a statement from the coastguard in Papeete, the capital of Tahiti.
The reason the man fell overboard was not known, but the vessel has continued its journey from New Zealand to the far-flung Pitcairn Islands in the middle of the South Pacific.
