All news
Pichugin, miraculously rescued in the Sea of Okhotsk, faces criminal charges: “Were overconfident”
Mikhail was rescued by fishermen from the trawler Angel after 67 days of drifting. The bodies of his older brother Sergei and 15-year-old nephew were on board the catamaran Baikat 470. Mikhail tied them to the boat so that they would not be carried out to sea during the storm.
Their inflatable boat was found 30 kilometers from the western coast of Kamchatka near the village of Ust-Khairuzovo in the Tigilsky District. In other words, the travelers were transported almost a thousand kilometers from where they were originally headed. They covered almost the entire Sea of Okhotsk.
We contacted the chief inspector of small vessels, the head of the Tigil inspection station of the Medical Information Inspection Center of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for the territory of Kamchatka, Nikolai Panchenko.
— What necessary equipment do I need to have?
"If they had gone out to sea, there should have been a radio station on board," Nikolai Panchenko said. "And there are also warning devices, life jackets and flares. In order to cover such a long distance from Khabarovsk Krai to Sakhalin, I had to take a satellite phone with me. Although this is not written down anywhere, it is necessary based on common sense. Obviously, they wanted to deal with this as quickly as possible, but it did not work out.
According to the inspector, the travelers also had to take a spare engine with them.
"It should have had at least a small backup engine." Moreover, the place they were heading to was very dangerous. The currents of the Tara Strait, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean meet here. The weather has been very unstable for the last two months, with constant storms. For example, no one goes out to the Sea of Okhotsk in small boats now, because the waves are too rough.
-Why do you think it took so long to find them?
— Most likely, because of the heavy fog and thunderstorm. The main fishing is already over. There were few perch trawlers in this area. Now the fishermen are switching to white fish. I was constantly monitoring the weather and there were always cyclones in this area. It's surprising that their boat hasn't capsized yet. The waves there reach 9 meters.
The only survivor, Mikhail Pikchugin, told the fishermen who rescued him that his engine broke down 60 km from the shore. They tried to reach the ground with oars, but one of them broke. Then they lost the anchor. And the catamaran began to be thrown further and further.
— Oars are useless in a sea with high waves. Especially if they were somewhere in the middle of their path. It is quite possible that they were simply surrounded by a single "spot" of the cyclone and carried back and forth by ocean currents.
It seems that the dead man drank water from hell before his death. Mikhail Pichugin said that his older brother Sergei went crazy after the death of his 15-year-old son. He cries, screams, jumps into the water. His brother tried to warm him with his body and feed him. But Sergei refused to eat. And ten days later he died.
- Yes, the children there were full of fear and despair. You don't know where you are, and you can't even see the shore. And the weather is always stormy and rainy. People behave differently when they are disoriented. Many people began to panic. And then the teenage son died right in front of his father...
— There were probably symptoms of hypothermia, exhaustion and dehydration. The waves were huge, you could get wet, but there was nowhere to dry. The wind there was cold. Our village is 60 km from the sea. Snow fell and has already melted. And when you approach the sea, you see snow piled up there. (Survivor Mikhail Pichugin told journalists that he had a sleeping bag made of camel wool, which kept him warm even when it got wet. — Author.)
According to investigators, the travelers were poorly prepared for the trip.
"They were probably overconfident." They had only two weeks' worth of food. They lacked backup power and water. In other words, they expected things to turn around quickly. And they didn't think anything could go wrong.
— What kind of place are the Shantar Islands that the travelers visited?
— It is an archipelago of 15 islands, including Big and Small Shantar, Bear, Squirrel and Bird. The total area is about 25,000 square kilometers. It is a popular place among tourists. There are wild corners of untouched nature, arctic beauty, where you can see three types of whales at once: Greenland whales, belugas and killer whales. (Tours to Shantar Island cost 220-550 thousand rubles. — Author).
Meanwhile, users on thematic forums shared what they take with them for navigation, communication and emergency rescue on a trip to the White and Barents Seas.
"The 10-person PSR (inflatable life raft) has a set of flares (pyrotechnic devices used to give light signals) (6 pieces) and a set of marine flares (11 pieces)," one user said. All crew members had 2 sets of life jackets, a Bro 380 jig and an inflatable kayak, a chart plotter (a device used in marine navigation that combines GPS data with electronic navigation charts (ENC), a backup navigation device at sea), a navigation console, and maps. The set included three pocket GPS navigators (with backup batteries), a compass, a 25-watt stationary marine radio, three portable marine radios, an AIS (a system used to identify a vessel, determine coordinates, and determine a route), speed, and receive other information, a Victoria satellite monitoring system, two satellite phones, and one 10-horsepower main engine. and two backup engines (5hp and 10hp, plus a backup generator in addition to the main grid) and of course a solar panel. A full first aid kit is also provided."
Another traveler said that he was on an inflatable boat when the main engine gearbox broke and the gears flew out. And he said: "Thank God, we have a reserve engine. With this we reached the sea on the shore.
Users reported building half-homes from tents to inflatable boats and carrying radio beacons that could send out distress signals in the event of a storm. And they were shocked by the disregard for the basics among the surviving boat owners. There were no extra motors, extra oars, satellite trackers or satellite phones, especially when going out to sea. Experienced travelers say: “Going where you can’t see the coast is pure suicide.”
But at the same time, everyone noted the incredible courage of the survivor and his will to live.