A barely understandable emergency call from a sailing yacht on the North Sea alerts the rescuers. Ships and helicopters swarm out, but extreme swell with high waves makes the relief operation difficult.
Langeoog – rescue drama with meter-high waves in the North Sea: for a young sailor who capsized a yacht between the islands of Langeoog and Baltrum, the sea rescuers have “no hope” despite a great search.
According to the helpers, two other casualties around the age of 20 could be brought alive from the troubled North Sea on Thursday evening. The missing person was in distress along with a woman and a man, the German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked People announced on Friday. The group tried to make an emergency call by mobile phone at around 6.45 p.m. on Thursday, but the emergency services made it difficult to understand. Locating the cell phone then helped to find the scene of the accident.
Third sailor not yet recovered
A total of eight ships and several helicopters immediately fanned out to search for the damaged vessel. Extremely strong swell with waves of up to four meters in height made the large-scale action difficult. Around 9:30 p.m., the crew of a marine helicopter was the first to find the woman floating in the water. She was pulled into the helicopter with a rope.
Half an hour later, the search team discovered one of the men and brought him to safety. According to the fire brigade, the two rescued were flown by helicopter to a hospital on the mainland. According to a spokesman for the Navy, they were severely hypothermic. According to the first findings, however, they are not in mortal danger, it said on Friday.
For the third sailor, according to the sea rescuers, any help came too late. During the search, the helpers discovered his body under the surface of the water. When trying to recover it, however, it sank into the troubled sea. “For him there is no longer any hope,” wrote the Shipwrecked Society on Friday. dpa
