Three Cuban citizens who were rescued this week after being abandoned for 33 days on an uninhabited island in the Bahamas said they managed to survive on a diet of coconuts, shells and mice, reports say.
The two men and a woman were first seen on Monday by a US Coast Guard helicopter flying on a routine mission near the Florida Keys. As of Wednesday morning, they were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in Pompano Beach, Florida, the agency said.
“We were alerted to them by the flags they really had, as well as a large cross that they put there for themselves,” helicopter pilot Mike Allert told WPLG.
These photos show three Cuban citizens being rescued from a desert island between Florida and Cuba on Monday.
(Coast Guard)
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Allert said he decided to fly back around Anguilla Cay to investigate and a team returned to the island on Monday to drop water, food and a radio.
The trio was stranded on a desert island in the Bahamas between Key West and Cuba, the agency posted on Twitter. A helicopter crew returned on Tuesday to pick them up.
They told authorities that their boat had capsized in rough waters and that they were able to swim to the island.
The trio also informed the Coast Guard helicopter crew that they survived with coconuts, shells and mice, media reports said.
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The two men and women were taken to the Lower Keys Medical Center, where neither appeared to be seriously injured.
“I can’t remember a time when we rescued people who were stranded for more than a month on an island,” U.S. Coast Guard 2nd class officer, Brandon Murray, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “This is a new one for me.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.