A man clinging to the wreckage of a fishing boat let go and leapt into the arms of rescuer in a dramatic video shot by a New Zealand emergency helicopter after a boating accident in which at least four people died.
Rescuers and police divers on Tuesday were continuing the search for one person still missing after the chartered boat that was carrying 10 people broke apart in stormy seas on Sunday night.
Five people were rescued from the sea after clinging to different sections of the overturned wreckage for hours, and four bodies were also recovered.
The video was taken by the Northland Emergency Services Trust at night from a rescue helicopter. One rescuer can be heard issuing instructions.
“Clearances are good. At your discretion, if you want to tack right to the target. At 40 feet, 35, 30," he says as another rescuer is winched down into the sea.
When the rescuer is in the sea, a man who is clinging to wreckage leaps off and stretches his arm out, and is grabbed by the rescuer.
Called the Enchanter, the 17-meter (56-foot) boat had left the northern port of Mangonui on Thursday with two crew and eight passengers aboard for a planned five-day fishing trip to the remote Three Kings Islands.
Its emergency beacon was activated at 8 p.m. Sunday off North Cape. But thunderstorms and dangerous flying conditions delayed the response, rescuers said, and the first helicopter didn't reach the wreckage until nearly midnight.
News outlet RNZ identified one of those who died as Mark Sanders, a 43-year-old builder and dad to three children.
Sanders' father Graeme told RNZ his son was a talented sportsman and keen fisherman who had been looking forward to the fishing trip for two years.
Graeme Sanders said his son told him he might have to cut the trip short because of the weather.
“He was worried about the forecast for the last day or so that he was fishing," Sanders told RNZ. "He told me that before he went — ‘The forecast doesn’t look good, we might have to come back early.’”
Two bodies were recovered by helicopter and two more by search boats on Monday, police said. The five people who were rescued were admitted to Kaitaia Hospital and later discharged.
Luis Fernandes, a meteorologist with New Zealand’s weather agency MetService, said gale-force winds had whipped up rough seas around North Cape at the time the alarm was raised. But conditions eased in the area later in the night as the search began and the storm system moved south, he said.
The captain of the Enchanter, who reportedly survived the accident, could not be reached Tuesday. The website for the charter boat says customers can catch swordfish, bass and kingfish: “Charter fishing for the serious angler,” it says.
Rescuers said three boats, two helicopters and one airplane were continuing the search for the missing person on Tuesday in marginal conditions. Police divers were also checking the wreckage of the Enchanter.
