The Air Force has just released video footage of the rescue with life of the missing girl in the Algarve sea since Saturday, 15th of April and which ended up being found on the high seas by a merchant ship.
At the end of the afternoon of this Sunday, April 16, a merchant ship that was circulating near the Algarve coast, on its way to Tangier (Morocco), spotted the young woman and recovered her from the water.
Emergency means were immediately activated, and an Air Force EH-101 Merlin helicopter was sent to the location, in order to rescue the young woman and thus forward her to a hospital unit.
The young woman was safely recovered by the rescuer-rescuer of Squadron 751 — “Pumas” 37 kilometers from the Algarve coast and 56 kilometers from Faro, with the state of the sea with waves of one meter and wind of 19km/h.
As he was suffering from hypothermia, he was provided with a thermal and heating blanket while still on the boat, in order to avoid the cold on the way up to the helicopter.
Once inside the aircraft, the military aeronautical nurse on board monitored the vital signs and provided the first health care.
The 17-year-old girl was missing for 20 hours, surviving the night and the heat of the day on Sunday, after being dragged by the sea while practicing Stand Up Paddle, at Praia do Coelho, in Monte Gordo, Vila Real de Santo António.
Since then, several assets have been committed, including two Air Force assets — a C-295M plane from Squadron 502 and an EH-101 Merlin helicopter from Squadron 751, both from Air Base No. 6, in Montijo, — for the mission of Search and Rescue.
The rescue mission began at 17:30 pm and lasted three hours.
The operation was activated by the Lisbon Air Search and Rescue Coordination Center and coordinated by the Navy's Lisbon Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center.
The young Érica Vicente is now recovering at the hospital Faro, in a "stable" situation. Everything indicates that he may be discharged in “24 or 48 hours”, as revealed this morning, at a press conference, the clinical director of the Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Algarve.
This is the second young woman to be rescued by the Air Force over the weekend. On Saturday, an EH-101 Merlin helicopter rescued a 16-year-old girl who disappeared during a kayaking event in Angra do Heroísmo, Azores.
The Air Force has assigned a sea search and rescue area of 5.816.562 km², equivalent to more than half of the European territory, representing the second largest area of responsibility in the North Atlantic.
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