The US Air Force is rescuing several survivors of a disaster on a Chinese boat in the Pacific Ocean.  A Venezuelan fishing boat came across the sailors helplessly adrift in a raft more than 2000 kilometers west of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, but six sailors are missing. 

The Venezuelans came across the sailors late on Friday, and the rescue effort is taking some time because of the vast distances to be crossed.  They say they eleven sailors floating in a raft, four of them badly burned.  The fisherman did their best to treat the injured, but two later died of their injuries.

The US Air Force dispatched the 563rd Rescue Group out of Arizona, which sent rescuers out on a six-hour flight to the location.  And that was the easy part.  The sailors will have to be hoisted onto choppers and flown to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and to San Diego for the most severely burned men.  But a chopper flight is even longer – 11 hours – and the choppers will have to refuel in-flight several times over the unbroken ocean.