The tourist was staying at the resort of Rethymno, in northern Crete. Photo / Getty Images
The tourist was staying at the resort of Rethymno, in northern Crete. Photo / Getty Images
A Russian holidaymaker has been rescued after being found seven miles out to sea on an inflatable sunbed "fried" by the sun for 21 hours.
Olga Kuldo, 55, was saved when she was spotted by a border patrol plane searching the seas for illegal immigrants off the coast of Crete, the Daily Mail reports.
Mrs Kuldo, of Zelenograd, Russia, was swept out to sea at the resort of Rethymno on the north of the Greek island after being caught in a strong current.
She floated through one night and was badly burnt by the hot sun the following day.
Frontex told The Sun in a statement: "On 28 June in the morning, a Slovak patrol plane deployed by Frontex in Greece was involved in a Search and Rescue operation when the Hellenic Coast Guard requested our plane to search for a missing person in the sea above Rethymno, Crete.
"At 10.40 our aircraft located the missing person, floating on an air mattress, nine nautical miles from Rethymno and one nautical mile from the coastline close to Lavris.
"A Hellenic Coast Guard vessel was dispatched and rescued the 55 year old female who had been in the sea for about 20 hours."
Mrs Kuldo needed hospital treatment for exposure and resulting heart problems.
She had been staying with her husband Oleg, 59, and daughter Yulia, 28, at the resort.
Family members alerted rescuers after she failed to return to her hotel room after a late afternoon swim.
But it was 21 hours later that she was spotted from the air after a huge boat and jet ski search failed to locate her.
A rescue vessel brought her back to shore and she was rushed to hospital with "heart problems" and "hypothermia" after suffering from exposure and sun stroke.
Olga Kuldo was swept out to sea after being caught in a strong current while floating on a sunbed. Photo / Getty Images
Her relieved daughter Yulia, 28, a TV producer, posted on social media: "Miracles happen."
She said her mother, an ultrasound diagnostics doctor, had been "burned to ashes" by the daytime sun before the EU Frontex agency plane spotted her.
A local report on the island said she was on her sunbed "when she was carried away to the open sea so she could not be seen from the beach".
It is unclear if she fell asleep but reports say she was carried away by a "strong current".
Local reports described Olga as "lucky" to survive.
The main damage to her health was from a cold night after she was wet for hours clinging to the air bed.
