The crews of some Good Samaritan boats successfully rescued all seven occupants of a fishing vessel after it developed a severe list in the Atlantic Ocean off northwestern Spain on Monday, February 9.
Local authorities first learned of the successful evacuation at around 10:50 local time on Monday when maritime search and rescue (SAR) agency Salvamento Maritimo received a distress call from the crew of one of the boats that had diverted to the area to render assistance.
The Good Samaritans reported that they were able to pick up the crew of the fishing vessel identified as the locally-registered Itoitz after the latter had abandoned ship into a waiting liferaft off the city of A Coruña in Galicia.
A SAR helicopter later arrived on-scene and brought all seven of Itoitz's crew to A Coruña Airport. No injuries have been reported.
Itoitz has reportedly continued to stay afloat albeit still listing heavily. It has also started to drift, prompting Salvamento Maritimo to deploy a SAR boat to the area to monitor the fishing vessel's movement.
Although a towing operation has already been planned, it has not yet been carried out due to the prevailing rough sea conditions.