When three men stranded on an uninhabited island in the Pacific were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard, it was like that Tom Hanks' movie, Castaway, but in real life.
On April 4, three mariners were sailing in the South Pacific when their 19-foot skiff was tossed by huge waves in the middle of the sea. Lucky for them to have their life vests on because they had to swim through the night to find safety.
After swimming for almost 2 miles, they reached Fanadik, a deserted island of the Federated States of Micronesia, which is hundreds of miles north of Papua New Guinea.
The following day, the U.S. Coast Guards got the report about the missing men, and together with the Navy and AMVER - a voluntary global ship reporting system - immediately set out to conduct search and rescue operations.
With the help of a Navy plane, the rescuers spotted the three men waving orange life vests beside the "HELP" sign made of palm tree fronds. The stranded men had to wait for three days to be found, but finally help has come.
The initial operation lasted for 17 hours, while on April 7 the crew was found after two hours of searching.
The castaways were picked up by a boat and safely taken to the island of Pulap, which is 4 nautical miles away from Fanadik.
"Our combined efforts, coupled with the willingness of many different resources to come together and help, led to the successful rescue of these three men in a very remote part of the Pacific," said Lt. William White, public affairs officer of Guam.
White added that the stranded men were first seen because of the fire. Without the fire, it would have taken the rescuers more hours of searching for them.
As of March 28, Coast Guards 14th District have conducted seven separate rescue operations. With the aide of 10 vessels and six AMVER aircrews they were able to save 15 lives.
"The Coast Guards 14th District covers an area of responsibility more than 12.2 million square miles of land and sea, an area almost twice the size of Russia," said Jennifer Conklin of Coast Guard Command Center in Honolulu.
