‘We were terrified they were going to kill us’: fishermen who survived US boat strike speak out
By 4pm, the light was softening over the Pacific, and the crew of the Don Maca were finishing a long day hauling in lines of swordfish and albacore. Down in the hold, the mood had settled into the familiar rhythm of a fishing day drawing to a close.
“We were just working, waiting for the last trawler to return,” said Jhonny Sebastián Palacios, one of the fishers. “Everything was perfectly fine.”
From nowhere, an explosion ripped through the boat. “There was a sudden crash – boom! It came from a drone,” he said.
The blast tore through the vessel, shattering glass, and injuring several crew members. “I ran upstairs and saw the boat destroyed … The whole ship was stripped bare,” he said.
