Coast Guard crews were filmed rescuing two fishermen after their boat capsized and they were left floating in choppy seas.
The men were seen clinging onto their sinking 24-foot fishing vessel after it ran out of fuel off the coast of Puerto Rico on Saturday, amid eight-foot storm surges and 25 to 30 knot winds.
A member of the Coast Guard jumped into the water and swam out to the two men, grabbing them around their stomachs and hoisting them up onto a helicopter to safety.
Their boat capsized just five minutes later, about five miles from Desecheo Island off Puerto Rico’s western shore, Coast Guard officials said.
‘Our crews worked together to conduct the rescue safely and efficiently with the best possible outcome,’ Coast Guard aircraft command Lt. David Tirado Tolosa said.
‘Emergencies at sea can happen at any given moment,’ he added.
‘We recommend all mariners wear their life jackets and carry a marine-grade radio as these men did, in case they encounter an unexpected situation at sea.’
Two fishermen were seen holding on to their sinking vessel before they were rescued off the coast of Puerto Rico on Saturday
Dramatic footage shows a Coast Guard member jumping into the choppy waters to rescue the men, grabbing them around their stomachs
Officials said they received a distress call at around 4pm about a disabled vessel in the ocean, and deployed an airplane crew from the Air Station Borinquen Coast Guard Auxiliary to locate the men.
The airplane crew was then able to find the men still aboard the ship.
At that point, officials said, they dispatched an MH-60 Jayhawk chopper to the men’s location.
It arrived just before the boat sank, and members of the crew were seen in the footage deploying floating devices and hoisting the men onto the helicopter.
No injuries were reported.
The incident comes just one week after a 74-year-old boater who vanished off the coast of Florida was found in his vessel drifting across international waters.
David Diehl was aboard the Stargazer, a 30-foot catamaran, when he was last heard from on December 4 about 20 miles off Fort Myers in southwest Florida.
He was finally spotted by a cruise ship who reported the boat as disabled and floating in waters 30 miles off Cuba.
Coast Guard crews were also seen deploying floating devices and hoisting the men onto a helicopter to safety
A video of the floating ship showed Diehl on board as a rescue crew set out toward him.
Diehl had been floating adrift for two weeks, before he was found. The coast guard sent out an alert on December 12, with still no word on his whereabouts on December 14.
Diehl was found ‘in good health’ despite his terrifying two weeks at sea.