2 American Navy Seals are declared deceased today after one fell into the Gulf of Aden and the second one jumped in in an attempt to rescue.
I live in a landlocked country. Never really experienced oceans or the water.
The 2 seals fell during the night time. Pitch black. But couldn’t they just yell and the other members could immediately shine a flashlight on them? I know I am missing something here.
Why are chances of surviving very slim when you fall into the ocean? I would assume you can still swim. Is the main cause of death that you will be drifted away by the ocean waves and cannot be located?
Would chances of survival significantly increase if you fell into the ocean during daytime? Surely even with the naked eye you can still see the victim before they are carried off by ocean waves?
Thank you.
In: Planetary Science
They were lost in the middle of a storm with 8 foot high waves.
Imagine a large truck hitting you at 20 miles per hour, except that truck is made out of water. The fact that the truck is made out of water dulls for the force of impact a little bit, but its still enough to knock you out.
Even if it doesn’t, there’s no way to swim against that and the wave isn’t just moving you side to side – its also moving you up and down. If you’re weighed down by equipment then you’ll just immediately go under.
If you have something on your body that is more buoyant than you are (such as a life jacket), that difference in buoyancy will cause the life jacket to be ripped away from your body after a few waves. An 8 foot tall wave has a such a sharp slope that you won’t float on the surface over the wave – the wave will simply pass over you, tearing at your body and everything you’re wearing as it does.
Which gets to the next point – you’re not just getting hit by one wave. You’re getting hit by dozens of waves every minute – so its like getting hit by a truck made out of water over and over and over again.
Further complicating anyone’s ability to save you is that within a few seconds you and the boat you came from will likely be quite far from one another. In between you and the boat is at least one 8 foot wave, which neither of you can see over. Then there’s wind, rain, and the noise the waves themselves make which is *loud* – so nobody will hear you screaming for help if you’re more than a few feet away.
Finally, the water is cold, which very quickly saps your energy.
In a situation like that, a person will last anywhere from 0 seconds to under a minute, depending on what they’re wearing. The fact that anyone who could rescue them is likely going to lose sight of them within a few seconds means that you are going to die if you fall out of a boat into a storm on the open ocean.
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