U.S. sailors help rescue 68 people on raft in Mediterranean Sea

U.S. sailors help rescue 68 people on raft in Med
By GEOFF ZIEZULEWICZ
Stars and Stripes
Published: January 17, 2012
NAPLES, Italy — A Navy aircrew over the weekend helped rescue 68 people adrift on a raft in the Mediterranean Sea, more than 80 miles off the coast of Malta.

The sailors, members of Hawaii-based Patrol Squadron 47 and working out of Sicily’s Naval Air Station Sigonella, received a distress call from Maltese authorities just before sunset on Saturday, according to a Navy release. The sailors, at Sigonella for a six-month rotation, boarded a P-3 Orion aircraft, scouring a 30-by-60-nautical-mile area.

The crew spotted a drifting raft that was empty and continued the search, said the crew’s commander, Navy Lt. Nicholas Warack.

“It was essential for us to get assistance to those people,” Warack said Tuesday.

Now flying in darkness, the crew spotted a rubber raft carrying 68 men, women and children of Somali origin, the release said.
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