A Lebanese sailor was rescued at night off Cyprus after 5 hours of falling from a height of 18 meters from the top of a vehicle carrier!

Politics and LocalA new life was written for him! A Lebanese sailor was rescued at night off Cyprus after 5 hours of falling from a height of 18 meters from the top of a vehicle carrier!

The Associated Press revealed that a Lebanese sailor was pulled from the dark waters of the eastern Mediterranean early Sunday, nearly five hours after he fell from a height of 18 meters from the top of a commercial ship.

Cypriot authorities said that the 24-year-old Lebanese citizen did not need medical care after the vehicle carrier NIVIN, which flies the Panama flag, rescued him from the sea.

A helicopter was dispatched 185 kilometers (115 miles) southeast of the island shortly after sunset when the NIVIN ship sent a distress call saying one of its crew members had fallen into the sea, Commander Andreas Charalambides, head of the Cyprus Search and Rescue Coordination Center, told The Associated Press.

The helicopter, equipped with heat sensors to detect objects at night, was unable to locate the sailor after combing a 25-square-kilometer (10-square-mile) area for about an hour, the agency said. The helicopter returned to base to refuel, but Cypriot authorities gave NIVIN the sailor’s likely location using computer models that took into account currents in the area at the time.

When the ship reached the area around midnight, the crew heard the sailor’s cries for help and were able to retrieve him.

Source: Associated Press - Published on 18-August-2024