Flemish fisherman Farid Langens is a hero. Last Monday in Cork, Ireland, he saved the life of a young woman, who ended up in the sea with her car. "Together with a fellow fisherman and an Irishman, we jumped into the water," he explains. It turned out well for the woman, but without Farid's heroic actions, she might not have made it.
Farid is a crew member of the Ostend trawler Z.48 Maria Antonia. On Monday it was unloading fish in the port of Cork: "We had just finished unloading when someone called out in a panic saying that a car had driven into the water," Farid says.
"There was a strong current at the time and we saw the car floating past our ship. I took a hook, jumped into the water and attached it to the car. A fellow fisherman and an Irishman had also jumped into the water. They smashed the car window and pulled the vehicle up against the boat."
Cold water
The water temperature was less than 15 degrees when the car and the fishermen were in the water. The first few minutes are the most dangerous in such cases. You go into cold shock, which increases your blood pressure and heart rate and makes it harder to breathe.
"In fishing school, we trained for situations on the water and that can come in handy. This was one of those moments when you can use that training. All you want is to save victims. She was stuck in her car and couldn't get out," the fisherman says. "There was little chance of her saving herself. We eventually managed to get her on dry land, after which she was taken to hospital. Shortly after we helped the woman onto dry land, her car sank to the bottom."
The Ostend fisherman's heroic act will not go unnoticed. "An Ostend resident who saves the life of someone else, anywhere in the world, should be honoured. We are going to see how that can be done" Ostend mayor Bart Tommelein (Flemish liberal/Open VLD) says.