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
There are many factors. One SEAL (it’s an acronym so it’s all caps) falling in and the other one jumping in after them already sets them at a disadvantage because they were likely wearing their shoes and not their fins – (Although sometimes they use hybrid systems which allow the fins to fold up toward their shins, permitting normal walking on solid ground.) But a water to ship boarding is less likely than the use of a small zodiac or other small boat, suggestive of their unlikely use of fins all together.
Add to this that if SEAL 1 was rendered unconscious and the following SEAL (SEAL 2) jumped recovering an unconscious body in larger waves while wearing shoes and no floatation – the difficulty to maintain their ability to float is largely diminished.
Lastly, is what you somewhat touched on, the vastness of large bodies of water with moderate to rough sea states while barely maintaining buoyancy makes it’s difficult to find a bobbing head at night.
The best way to increase your chances would be to jump in during daylight into calm water, assist a conscious teammate, with a flotation device and fins. Clear skies would also be a requirement for ISR to observe these events and relay your location to recovery elements- low cloud decks would be prohibitive.
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