Fisherman survives by clinging to bow as boat sinks in freezing waters

February 4, 2025

A fisherman survived after being forced to cling to his boat as it sank in freezing waters.

Heart-stopping footage taken from a helicopter shows how a rescuer reached the stricken man in the nick of time.

Only the very tip of the bow could be seen sticking out of the rough sea as the vessel sank vertically.

Both men on board the 12m-long fishing boat survived thanks to a stroke of luck on Sunday (2 Feb) afternoon.

The Royal Norwegian Air Force’s 330 Squadron was choosing between two possible routes for a planned training flight.

The airmen ultimately decided on the longer of the two.

Shortly after a joint exercise with a coastal vessel west of Hasvik, Sørøya island, they set course for Banak, in Norway.

One minute later, they received a call from the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre.

They were told about an emergency signal received from a distress beacon activated nearby.

As soon as the pilots received the position, they headed straight there and arrived within five minutes.

They found the fishing boat sticking about a metre above the water amid heavy waves and strong winds.

The fisherman stuck on the bow was winched up to the helicopter and told the rescuers that his colleague was in the sea.

About 300m from the vessel, they found the man barely managing to swim, as reported by Need To Know.

He was dressed in oilskins and boots and hadn’t had time to put a life jacket on because the accident had happened so quickly.

The head of 330 Squadron Oskar Norderval told local media: “I don’t think he could have managed much longer.

“It’s actually impressive to survive 20 minutes in that water at the beginning of February, with four-to-five-metre waves.”

The men were lucky that the rescue helicopter was just five minutes away, according to Mr Norderval.

The squadron head said they would have taken an hour had the helicopter been stationed at its base in Lakselv as normal.

Mr Norderval said: “That was probably the decisive factor in one of them surviving.”

The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre said in a statement: “The two people aboard the fishing boat that sank off Sørøya yesterday were lucky.

“The fact that the 330 Squadron had a rescue helicopter from Banak in the air nearby on a training exercise was pure chance.

“However, what is a perfect example of a system working as it should is that when the boat’s emergency beacon was activated, the alarm immediately went off at the JRCC.

“This allowed our rescue coordinators in Bodø – who received the signal via a satellite network we are part of – to quickly contact the rescue helicopter, enabling them to locate and hoist the two men to safety.”