Published April 12. 2016 05:32AM
HONOLULU (AP) - The U.S. Navy officer in charge of a flight crew that located three castaways on a remote Pacific island says he has never seen or heard of another rescue quite like it.
The stranded men, who were reported missing last Tuesday after a wave overtook their skiff, were found on a tiny Micronesian island on Thursday after spelling out the word "help" with palm fronds.U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander John Harkins told The Associated Press Monday in a telephone interview that he and his crew were searching when their infrared camera detected a recent fire.The Navy crew began to fly around an island and then saw the word "help." He says that about 15 seconds later, three men came running out of the jungle waving their orange life vests over their heads.
This photo provided by U.S. Navy released Thursday, April 7, 2016, shows a man waving a life jacket and two others looking on as a U.S. Navy P-8A maritime surveillance aircraft discovers them on the uninhabited island of Fanadik. The three men were back to safety on Thursday, three days after going missing. Officials say three men who had been missing for three days were rescued from a deserted Pacific island after a U.S. Navy plane spotted a gigantic "help" spelled out with palm leaves. (Ensign John Knight/U.S. Navy via AP)