Seattle firefighters rescued a worker who is lucky to be alive after falling 40 feet into the hull of a fishing vessel near the Magnolia Bridge Tuesday morning.
Firefighters were called to the Port of Seattle's Pier 91 at 8:30 a.m. after receiving a report of a man who had fallen on a ship.
Port security said the ship he was on was the Northern Jaeger, a 330-foot fish processing vessel.
The Seattle Fire Department technical rescue team had to strap the worker into a litter, connect ropes to it and retrieve it with an aerial ladder.
"We had to set up a rope system to get him out of this hole. We used an aerial ladder as a change of direction. We were able to lift him up after we packaged him," said Lt. Sue Stangl with Seattle fire and rescue.
Crews were surprised to find that the 30 year-old man beat the odds and had no injuries worse than bone fractures.
"My understanding is at about 15 feet, you have about a 50-50 survival rate, so when you're looking at a fall of 40 feet, he is very fortunate," said Stangl.
Not only was the man alive, but he was conscious and talking after the fall.
He was transported to Harborview Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries.