The U.S. Coast Guard saved three boaters from shark-infested waters off the coast of Louisiana on Sunday using only a screenshot from Apple Maps.
While on a fishing trip on Saturday, Luan Nguyen, Phong Le and Son Nguyen became stranded in the Gulf of Mexico when their boat took on water and sank, Luan Nguyen and Le told “Today” on Wednesday. The three men would spend 28 hours in the water before being rescued by the Coast Guard on Sunday morning.
“We searched an area roughly the size of Rhode Island and are thankful to have found these missing boaters,” Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Keefe said in a statement on Monday.
A family member of one of the boaters initially contacted the Coast Guard on Saturday when the group didn’t return from their fishing trip. The three men remained in the water overnight as the Coast Guard searched for them.
“We didn’t talk,” Le told Today. “It was cold. It was very cold. So, we were just trying to stay warm, trying to hold each other and stay warm.”
Le made a last-ditch effort to get help on Sunday morning, swimming several miles toward a shrimp boat before it eventually went off in the opposite direction, he said.
However, upon opening his phone — which was in a waterproof case and had about 5% battery left — messages began coming through, and Le was able to send a screenshot of his approximate location on Apple Maps, he told Today.
The Coast Guard used the photo to help locate the three boaters, about 25 miles off the coast of Empire, Louisiana. By the time the Coast Guard found the group, the men were exhausted, sunburned and dehydrated, fending off sharks and giant jellyfish. One was showing signs of hypothermia, according to the Coast Guard.
“I just remember him picking me up and pulling me out the water,” Luan Nguyen said of his rescuer, Coast Guard Seaman Andrew Stone, on Today. “It was like, ‘Wow, we made it.’”
“It’s one of the reasons why I joined the Coast Guard,” Stone said of the rescue. “I love this branch because we’re able to do stuff like that. Like to be able to see [Nguyen] alive and recovering, it’s awesome.”