Pilot describes ‘surreal’ rescue of 3 fishermen off N.S. coast

The pilot of a Canadian Armed Forces helicopter that rescued three fishermen from their burning boat in the Atlantic Ocean Sunday says the fishermen should be praised for the way they responded to the situation.

“They got into a raft right away and made a radio distress call and brought the gear they needed,” said Capt. Evan Southern, who is based at 14 Wing Greenwood in the Annapolis Valley.

Southern said he learned around 8:30 a.m. AT Sunday that a fishing boat around 110 kilometres off Nova Scotia’s South Shore was in flames, forcing the three halibut fishermen on board to get into a life raft.

It took Southern and the four other crew members about an hour to get in the air and another hour to get to the site, arriving around 10:30 a.m.

“The first thing we saw from a good number of miles away was smoke, so we kind of followed the smoke in and saw their vessel, which was on fire. The life raft that they had gone into had drifted a little bit away,” said Southern, who estimates the life raft was a kilometre and a half away from the burning boat.

Also on scene was a Hercules aircraft, which had arrived ahead of the Cormorant, as well as a private aircraft that helps with search and rescue operations. The crew from the Hercules used locator flares to make it easy for the Cormorant crew to spot the life raft.

“It was almost surreal to see the whole boat engulfed in flames and to see a life raft floating there,” said Southern.

The Cormorant crew carried out the rescue in 19 minutes. This included lowering a search and rescue technician into the water, who then swam over to the life raft and placed rescue equipment on the fishermen. From there, the technician and a fishermen were hoisted into the helicopter. This process was repeated three times.

Southern said the fisherman were taken to the Halifax airport and met by their families. He said the fishermen were safe and healthy and didn’t require much medical attention.

It’s unclear what port the fishermen were based out of.

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