A Russian man survives more than two months in an inflatable boat adrift with the bodies of his brother and nephew

A russian man was rescued in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, in the Pacific Ocean, after survive for more than two months in a small inflatable boat that he lost his engine, in which he was found along with the bodies of his brother and his nephew, aged 15, tied to the boat to prevent them from being swept away by the sea.

The Far Eastern Prosecutor’s Office Russia has reported that the man was found this Monday by a fishing boat facing the Kamchatka peninsula. Thus, Russian media have identified the castaway as Mikhail Pichugin, 46, who at the beginning of August went on a whale watching trip in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk along with his 49-year-old brother and 15-year-old nephew.

According to local media, the three men traveled to the Shantar Islands, off the northwest coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, in early August. They disappeared after leaving for Sakhalin Island from Cape Perovsky, Khabarovsk region, on August 9. An intense search was then carried out, which was fruitless. Russian media then reported that the castaways I had a small portion of food and about 20 liters of water when their engine failed and they found themselves adrift.

When the man was found this Monday he had lost half his body weight: from 110 kilos to 50. Furthermore, when the crew of the fishing boat detected the small inflatable boat on their radar, They thought it was a buoy or a piece of trashbut they turned on the spotlight to make sure and were surprised to see Pichugin, which was about 1,000 kilometers from their starting point.

A video released by the Prosecutor’s Office shows an emaciated man in a life jacket desperately shouting “here!” and the crew working to get him to safety. “I have no strength,” Pichugin points out in the images while he is rescued.

The Prosecutor’s Office has already launched an investigation into the incident on charges of violation of safety regulations that resulted in deaths, while Pichugin was rushed to Magadan hospital. The chief doctor, Yuri Lednev, told reporters that he was suffering from dehydration and hypothermia, but that he was stable.