A chief engineer aboard the former seismic support vessel Silver Supporter was missing and presumed he had gone overboard. However, after hours at sea, Silver Supporter managed to locate him and rescue him.
The engineer was working aboard the seismic vessel on a voyage from New Zealand to Pitcairn Island. However, on February 16, he was discovered missing, and the crew presumed he had gone overboard.
The Silver Supporter’s crew reported the incident to JRCC Tahiti, which then issued a request for assistance to nearby merchant ships. In addition, France’s meteorological agency provided drift calculations to estimate the man’s potential movement from the last known position. Moreover, the French Navy deployed two search and rescue aircrafts out of Tahiti to search for the missing man.
In the end, after a full day of searching, the engineer was found by his own vessel. Specifically, the Silver Supporter returned to its earlier trackline, and contacted JRCC Tahiti reporting that her crew had located the chief engineer and retrieved him from the water.
