A sailor was rescued unharmed from the dark waters of the eastern Mediterranean early on Sunday nearly five hours after falling off a commercial ship.
Cypriot authorities said the 24-year-old Lebanese national needed no medical attention after the Nivin, the Panamanian-flagged vehicles carrier from which he had fallen 18 metres (60ft) into the water, plucked him from the sea.
Cmdr Andreas Charalambides, the head of the Cyprus search and rescue coordination centre, said a helicopter was dispatched to 115 miles (185km) south-east of Cyprus shortly after sundown when the Nivin sent a distress call that one of its crew had fallen overboard.
The helicopter, equipped with heat sensors, could not locate the sailor after combing a 10 sq mile (25 sq km) area for close to an hour.
The helicopter returned to base for refuelling and Cypriot authorities gave the Nivin the potential location of the sailor using computer models factoring in prevailing currents in the area at the time.
As the ship scoured the area in the dead of night, the crew heard the sailor crying out for help and picked him up.
Charalambides said an investigation into how the man ended up in the water was the responsibility of the nation under which the ship sails.
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