A member of the US air force parachutes into the Pacific Ocean to aid two critically injured Chinese sailors aboard a Venezuelan fishing boat. Major Sarah Schwennesen at Davis-Monthan base in Arizona said the fishing boat had reported finding 11 sailors floating in a raft on Friday afternoon.

The sailors were from a Chinese fishing boat that went down in the Pacific, leaving six of its crew missing and presumed dead. According to the Venezuelan crew, four of the sailors they picked up were badly burned, and two later died of their injuries.

US airmen from the 563rd Rescue Group parachuted into the water on Saturday and used inflatable boats to reach the Venezuelan vessel, which was 1,100 nautical miles west of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Schwennesen said. The rescuers treated the sailors, who will be flown to Cabo San Lucas. The injured pair will then be taken in a different aircraft to a burn unit in San Diego, accompanied by the airmen giving them care.