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Fishing captain clinging to cooler 30 miles off Florida during hurricane rescued

00:41

Hurricane Milton: Watch US Coast Guard rescue man clinging to ice box

This is the moment a man clinging to an ice box in the Gulf of Mexico during Hurricane Milton is rescued by the US Coast Guard.

Rescuers located the man 30 miles off Longboat Key in Florida, after he became stranded.

The man, whose identity has not been disclosed, had been aboard a fishing vessel that became disabled on Wednesday (9 October), just hours before the hurricane made landfall.

He managed to radio the Coast Guard station in St Petersburg before losing communication at around 6:45pm.

On Thursday, search crews located him drifting about 48 kilometres offshore, clinging to the open ice box.

This dramatic video released by the Coast Guard shows a diver being lowered from a helicopter to swim to the man and rescue him.

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