Previously, we wrote about a whale watcher that survived for 67 days alongside the bodies of his relatives. Well, now, he's facing jail time for the deaths of his nephew and brother.
No, he didn't murder him. But authorities believe his actions led to their deaths. Search and rescue eventually rescued 45-year-old Mikhail Pichugin on an inflatable dinghy in October. His relatives' bodies were beside him. The raft had drifted hundreds of miles off the coast of Russia after their engine broke.
The whale watcher was taking his family on a trip to see whales when the incident occurred. According to authorities, the inflatable dinghy shouldn't have went more than two mile from shore. The whale watcher took the vessel 37 miles from shore. He then drifted some 625 miles after the engine broke.
Whale Watcher Faces Jail
While drifting at sea, his nephew Ilya died from starvation. The whale watcher said, "After that his father went crazy - Sergei was crying, screaming and jumping into the water. He tried to "warm him up, tried to feed him, but he refused to do so, and after 10 days he also died."
They're seeking a case against the whale watcher for neglect. They believe that failure to comply with regulations led to the deaths.
"As a result of my violations of navigation, my brother Sergei and his son Ilya died,"he said in a confession. "I lost my relatives, it's hard for me. They also want to put me in jail. I understand that I violated the law. I sailed too far from the shore. My relatives died not because I went too far out to sea but due to a combination of circumstances."
While drifting at sea, the whale watcher dropped a massive amount of weight and only survived because he was overweight.
Dmitry Lisitsyn, head of Sakhalin Environment Watch, said, "There are two real miracles here. The first is that such a small, uncontrolled boat was not capsized in the stormy autumn Sea of Okhotsk after more than two months of drifting. I can't wrap my head around how this is possible. The boat certainly went through several strong storms and remained afloat - this is something incredible.
He continued, "The second is that someone on this boat survived. The fact that two people died - a father and son - is very sad, but not surprising. But how the third person - their uncle and brother - could survive in the icy, stormy sea for more than two months is simply beyond comprehension. It truly is a miracle."
