“After a distress call from the mariners was received around 2 a.m. EST (11:30 am IST), a US Navy P-8 aircraft was the first to arrive on the scene, deploying a search and rescue kit that included a life raft, which the 14 mariners managed to board,” stated the Central Command.
The Motor Vessel (M/V) Jabal Ali 9 then arrived and successfully retrieved eleven crew members from the life raft.
“An MH-60S Sea Hawk, attached to the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), rescued three more mariners after their life raft capsized in the choppy waters. The three mariners were taken to M/V Jabal Ali 9, where they were found to be in good health and high spirits,” according to Centcom.
The USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112), an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, also responded to the distress call, as noted.
The operational area of the US 5th Fleet spans nearly 2.5 million square miles, covering the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea, sections of the Indian Ocean, and three significant chokepoints at the Strait of Hormuz, Suez Canal, and Bab al-Mandeb.
