A Russian man who survived more than two months on a small rubber boat that lost its engine in the stormy Sea of Okhotsk was rescued, but his brother and nephew died, authorities said Tuesday.
Prosecutors in Russia’s Far East said the man was rescued by a fishing boat off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula on Monday.
The name of the survivor has not been released, but Russian media reports have identified him as 46-year-old Mikhail Pichugin, who was killed in the Sea of Okhotsk in early August with his 49-year-old brother and his 15-year-old younger brother. I went on a trip to see whales. – year old nephew. When the Angel fishing boat rescued the Pichugins, their bodies were reportedly found on board.
According to media reports, the three visited the Shantar Islands off the northwestern coast of the Sea of Okhotsk in early August. The two went missing on August 9th while returning to Sakhalin Island. Her family alerted the authorities, who launched a rescue operation, but they were unable to find her.
The survivor’s wife told Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency that the trio carried about two weeks’ worth of food, as well as warm clothing, life vests, flares and about five gallons of water. It appears that the boat’s engine broke down and it became adrift.
Russian Ministry of Emergencies/Distribution via Reuters
News reports said Pichugin weighed only about 110 pounds when he was found, losing half his body weight.
He did not immediately say how he survived the Sea of Okhotsk, known for its coldest and windiest conditions in East Asia, or how his brother and nephew died. The local prosecutor’s office has reportedly opened a preliminary criminal investigation into the death.
According to the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, when the crew of the fishing boat spotted a small rubber boat on their radar, they first thought it was a buoy or some junk, but when they turned on the spotlight just to be sure, they were shocked to see Pichugin. It is said that he received it. .
A video released by the public prosecutor’s office showed a haggard man wearing a life jacket frantically shouting, “Come!” and crews were working to pull him back to safety.
“I don’t have any strength left,” Pichugin said as he was taken to a safe location.
Russia’s Far East Transport Prosecutor’s Office/Handout via Reuters
Alexey Alikov, the owner of the fishing boat that found the survivors, said the survivors were “in critical condition, thin but conscious,” RIA Novosti news agency reported.
According to the news agency, the boat docked in the far eastern city of Magadan at around 8:30 p.m. Japan time, and the survivors were taken away on stretchers.
“This is a kind of miracle,” the survivor’s wife Ekaterina told RIA Novosti, adding that the men had enough food and water to last just two weeks.
Experts questioned by RIA Novosti recalled that in 1960, four Soviet soldiers survived after being adrift for 49 days in a small boat in the Pacific Ocean, only to be found by the US aircraft carrier Keelsurge.
Prosecutors announced that they have opened an investigation into the incident on suspicion of violating safety rules that caused the fatal accident.
Last year, an Australian seafarer said: survived over 2 months I got lost at sea with my dog. Tim Shaddock, 51, and his dog Bella were sailing from Mexico to French Polynesia when rough seas damaged their boat and electronic systems, leaving them adrift and cut off from the rest of the world.
CBS News’ Haley Ott, Daria Simonenko and AFP contributed to this report.
