PANAMA – August 30th, 2012 – A Costa Rican reported as missing since August 25th was rescued alive yesterday in Panama waters by an English commercial ship identified as “Torpan.”
The man, identified as Huber Orellana Fernandez, was found at 7 am , at a 40 kilometer distance from the port of Colon, in Panama, confirmed Rodolfo Murillo, chief of operations in the Coastguard National Service.
According to the information provided by the survivor, the boat became adrift, at which point his two companions decided to abandon the boat and swim to shore.
However, they miscalculated the distance and did not make it to the beach.
They three men were aboard the vessel “Willshire”. The other two men, Marco Antonio Gomez Pablo – also Costa Rican – and Elton Castellon Herrera of Nicaragua, have not been found yet.
The boat had departed from Limon this past Saturday morning.
According to the Coastguard protocols for this type of incident, the operations department immediately alerted the Panama Air and Naval Service, due to the fact that the marine currents flow towards the south of the Caribbean.
They also got in touch with officers from the Miami 7th district, United States Coast Guard, to aid in search and rescue operations.
The Panamanian officers were able to find the boat floating 50 kilometers from the Panamanian coast of Veraguas.