Castaways Return Home After 41 Days Lost At Sea

Two men have returned home to Papua New Guinea after surviving nearly six weeks lost at sea.

Their three companions, including a pregnant woman, did not survive.

On Sept. 28, Rickson Masol, 32, and Chris Pagan, 49, set sail with three others from their home village of Fissoa to nearby Simberi Island, according to the International Organization for Migration .

When their boat experienced engine failure, the group began to drift and lost all communication with land.

Forty-one days later, the two castaways washed ashore at Satawan Atoll , in the Federated States of Micronesia -- some 600 miles from where they had departed, the International Organization for Migration said in a statement.

Residents of Satawan Atoll reportedly found the men in "surprisingly good health , having survived by drinking rainwater and coconuts which washed past their boat," according to the organization's statement.

On Tuesday, Masol and Pagan were flown back to Papua New Guinea and reunited with their families.

“We are so happy to be home,” Masol said in a statement. “Being lost at sea was terrifying, but we have been treated so kindly by everyone since then.”

While 41 days at sea is an incredible feat of survival, it pales in comparison to the story of Jose Salvador Alvarenga -- the world's longest-surviving castaway .

Last year, the Salvadoran fisherman washed ashore in the Marshall Islands, some 6,700 miles from where he went missing. He survived 438 days lost at sea . 

See below for an EM TV news report about the New Ireland castaways. 

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