MOSCOW: A Russian man was found alive after drifting for two months on an inflatable boat while another man and a teenage boy died, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

The two men and a 15-year-old set off to the Island of Sakhalin from the far eastern Khabarovsk region on Aug 9, transport prosecutors said. “After a time, communication with them was lost, their boat’s location remained unknown,” they said.

“On Oct 14 around 10pm, the boat was discovered as it passed a fishing boat... Two people died, one remained alive, he is receiving medical help,” prosecutors said.

The dinghy was found in the Sea of Okhotsk, around 1,000 kilometres from its starting point. Prosecutors published a video showing the bearded survivor in a life jacket shouting at the fishermen: “I don’t have much strength” but managing to catch a rope.

The survivor was named by RIA Novosti news agency as Mikhail Pichugin, while his brother Sergei, 49, and nephew Ilya, 15, died. Their bodies were on the boat.

Russian rescuers had mounted a search using helicopters and a plane for the men a few days after they disappeared, suspecting the boat had been carried by currents towards Kamchatka.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2024