Four men who were aboard a small boat, five meters long, adrift, about 46 kilometers southwest of Cabo de São Vicente, were rescued, this Saturday, in the late afternoon, by an Air Force helicopter .
Rocha Pacheco, Commander of the Southern Maritime Zone, told the Sul Informação that the four men, foreigners, called for help after the engines had stopped working.
The alert was received at around 19:30 pm, and the Navy, through the Lisbon Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC Lisbon), sent three merchant ships to the site and engaged a Portuguese Air Force helicopter to carry out the rescue.
The men, who were physically well and did not need medical care, were transported to the airport of Faro, where they were delivered, according to Rocha Pacheco, to the Foreigners and Borders Service.
The Southern Maritime Zone Commander refused to draw a parallel between this situation and that which occurred on 11 November, when 37 men were rescued 47 nautical miles between Vila Real de Santo António and Tavira, "both for the size and the location of the coast".
Even so, he explained, now there will be "an inquiry to investigate the reasons that led those people to be in that place", he concluded.
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