On Saturday, March 21, at 8:40 a.m., the alert crew of Tahiti's Flotilla 35F detachment was put on alert to rescue a Chinese fishing vessel, the Shen Gang Shun.

At the time of the alert, the situation was very confused, but it appears that the Chinese fishing vessel was stranded on the reef of Arutua Atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago.

Activated by the Tahiti Operational Center (TOC) of the Armed Forces in French Polynesia (FAPF), the N3+ Dolphin helicopter takes off at 09h30 from Faa'a towards Arutua.

After a flight of one hour and thirty minutes, the helicopter arrives on site to discover the ship stranded on the coral reef, heckled by a strong swell from the South which could quickly endanger its 36 crew members.

After analysing the situation, the evacuation manoeuvre is decided.

The diver of the 35F is hoisted aboard the fishing vessel in order to proceed with the evacuation of each of the crew members, during an operation that will last nearly 9 hours, during which all the health assessment measures deemed useful in the context of the expansion of the Covid-19 will have been taken by the crew !

In concrete terms, this operation will have consisted of no less than 8 rotations of 3 to 6 people at a time, separated by 3 refuelling stations, during which . Safe and sound, the latter were recovered at the end of the day by three other fishing vessels from the same owner.