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Cooler rescue off Chiapas
The Mexican Navy rescued two fishermen 150 miles off the coast of Chiapas, Mexico on 19 August after they had been missing for 5 days, floating inside a cool box used to store caught fish on a fishing boat.
“The Mexican Navy rescued two fishermen 150 miles off the coast of Chiapas, Mexico on 19 August”
Naval authorities began the search after the fishing cooperative lost contact with the men on 15 August and sent out a distress call, and the two men were found alive and medically evaluated before being reunited with their families.
The operation was activated following a distress call from a fishing cooperative that had lost communication with the crew of the vessel Camaronera on August 14, and the fishermen were 53 and 32 years old.
The Twenty-Second Naval Zone, based in Puerto Chiapas, coordinated the deployment using the concept called trinomial—ship, intercepting vessel, and aircraft—until locating the two men on the cooler about 130 nautical miles from the coast.
Search, medical care, handover
After an ocean patrol unit approached the area and carried out the rescue maneuvers, naval health personnel conducted medical evaluations aboard before the fishermen were airlifted to the port.
El Universal said the recovery used the trinomial concept (ship-interceptor-aircraft) to widen search coverage and locate the fishermen approximately 240 kilometers from Chiapas.
TV Azteca described the alert reaching the Navy Secretariat (Semar) through personnel from a fishing cooperative, and said the men were found clinging to a cooler more than 240 kilometers from the Chiapas coast.
CNN said the two men endured five days without food or water until spotted by a Navy patrol plane, and that they were rescued around 150 mi (240 km) off the coast of southern Mexico.
Families and stable health
Following the rescue, both crew members were airlifted to the port, where they received medical care and were handed over to their families.
“both crew members were airlifted to the port, where they received medical care and were handed over to their families”
TV Azteca reported that once out of the water, Naval Health personnel conducted an initial medical evaluation to determine the conditions of the fishermen after drifting, and then both were transported by air in a helicopter to a port for continued medical care.
The Mexican Navy operation was led by the Secretariat of the Navy, headed by Admiral Raymundo Pedro Morales Ángeles, as it carried out the search and rescue after the distress call.
Sol Yucatán said the men, Daniel Guerrero Martínez and José Luis Portelas Villegas, natives of Bahía de Paredón, Tonalá, were located approximately 240 kilometers from the coast of Chiapas and were immediately assisted and brought to safety.