The rescue mission included a ship with five divers and helicopters for locating the vessel. The first sea conditions were too rough, so the rescue squad had to wait until daylight to extract the man from the water.

A 62-year-old Frenchman survived for 16 hours in an air bubble inside his capsized sailboat in the Atlantic Ocean before he was rescued in an “almost impossible” operation.

The 40-foot Jeanne SOLO Sailor transmitted a distress signal on Monday at 20:23, 14 nautical miles from the Sisargas Islands off the coast of Spain’s northwestern Galicia province, according to the coast guard.

The unidentified man was rescued by a rescue ship carrying five divers as one of three helicopters sent to assist in the search discovered the capsized craft as the sunset.

The individual responded to divers searching for signs of life by banging on the ship’s hull from within.

However, the sea was too stormy at the time to attempt a rescue, so the team affixed buoyancy balloons to the ship’s hull to keep it from sinking further and waited until dawn to attempt a rescue.

The man was discovered under the boat wearing a neoprene survival suit and knee-deep in water when two divers swam under to assist him.

He was evacuated to safety and transported to the hospital for examinations, but was shortly discharged without incident.

A member of the coastguard’s special operations unit, Vicente Cobelo, told a local station that the man plunged into the frigid water and swam under the boat to reach the surface of the water.

He stated, “On his initiative, he entered the water and free-moved out, with the assistance of divers who had to pull him through because it was difficult for him to exit his suit.”

The Jeanne SOLO Sailor had set sail from the city of Portugal the day before, according to tracking information.