A man survives 16 HOURS in a capsized sailboat in the Atlantic thanks to an air bubble

The man, 62, was found 14 miles from the Sisargas Islands off the northwest region of Galicia in Spain after leaving Lisbon and survived due to an air bubble

The 62-year-old Frenchman managed to survive all this time before being rescued by divers from the Spanish Coast Guard (

Image: SOLARPIX.COM)

A man survived for 16 hours in an air bubble inside his capsized sailboat in the Atlantic Ocean.

The 62-year-old Frenchman managed to survive the whole time before being rescued by Spanish Coastguard divers in what they described as an operation "bordering on the impossible".< /p>

The 40-foot (12-meter) sailor Jeanne SOLO sent a distress signal at 8:23 p.m. Monday August 1.

At the time, it was 22 km from the Sisargas Islands, off the Galicia region in northwest Spain, according to the Coast Guard.

Tracking data shows that he had sailed from Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, the morning of the previous day (Sunday 31 July).

As a rescue vessel carrying five divers set sail, one of three helicopters sent to assist in the search spotted the overturned vessel just as the sun was setting.

A diver was winched onto the ship's hull to try and find signs of life and the man inside, who has not been named, responded to this hit on the hull and hit from the inside.

With the sea too rough to attempt a rescue, they attached buoyant balloons to the ship's hull to prevent it from sinking further and waited until morning.

Two divers swam under the boat to help the sailor. They found him wearing a neoprene survival suit and knee-deep in water.

Vicente Cobelo, a member of the Coast Guard's special operations team, told a local station that the man voluntarily jumped into the freezing water and swam under the boat to reach the surface of the sea .

"On his own initiative, he got into the water and snorkeled, helped by the divers who had to pull him because it was difficult for him to get out in his wetsuit," he said.

He was airlifted to safety and taken to hospital for checks, but was released shortly after as no health issues were discovered.

This nearly impossible rescue comes after a cruise ship recently crashed into an iceberg in the middle of the ocean - but luckily no one was hurt either.

A 2,000-passenger Norwegian Cruise Line ship was heading for an Alaskan glacier, but was forced to turn back after heavy fog caused the ship to crash into an iceberg.

While some passengers were asleep and blissfully unaware of the events unfolding outside, horrified passengers filmed the devastating noise.

The impact of the accident was such that the cruise ship was forced to dock in Juneau, Alaska, as experts assessed the damage to the ship before recommending that it be returned to Seattle for repair.

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