What a story, imagine spending the night in the dark ocean, wondering if anyone is coming.
Three fisherman were rescued from sunken boat off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico.
They spent more than 24-hours in the water & when the Coast Guard arrived they witnessed two of three people fighting off sharks.
The men spent 28-hours in the water, more than 25 miles offshore.
"The men were reported missing Sunday morning.
As the Coast Guard worked to narrow the search area, there was a break in the case.
A mobile phone belonging to one of the missing boaters suddenly found cell service. ..Lt. Katy Caraway was the co-pilot of the Jayhawk helicopter that rushed to the location.
“The first thing that I noticed were jellyfish, actually,” Caraway said. “There were plenty of jellyfish around.”
But she said rescue boat crews at the scene also reported sharks in the water.
“That there were four sharks swarming the individuals and that they had been fighting off sharks with their hands and it was evidenced by a life jacket on one of the individuals that had been torn apart by a shark,” Caraway said.
Luan Nguyen gave details about his frightening encounter with the shark.
“The head part was in front of me and the shark from just out of nowhere bit the vest,” Nguyen said. “So, I pushed the shark and then I tried to push his nose.”
The three boaters were lifted into the helicopter around 1 p.m. Sunday afternoon.
Rescue swimmer, Petty Officer Richard Hoefle said the men did a lot to increase their chances of survival.
“They recognized the peril of their situation,” Hoefle said. “They put on their life jackets. They grabbed their cellphones, and they reached out for help, and they tied themselves together and they tied themselves to floating objects."