Man pulled from water by fishing crew after falling nearly 40 feet from tanker into Boston Harbor dies

A man who was rescued by the crew of a commercial fishing boat Tuesday after he fell overboard from a tanker has died, the Massachusetts Suffolk County District Attorney’s office said. 

In an update Wednesday, officials said the crew of a commercial fishing boat who helped rescue a man who had fallen overboard the chemical tanker MTM Dublin had died from the nearly 40-foot drop.

In the early morning hours Tuesday, the commercial fishing boat America responded to the tanker's mayday call of a crew member who had fallen overboard, and was the first vessel on the scene.

Crew members used flashlights to search for the missing man in the pitch-black water before spotting and rescuing him.

Despite the fishing crew administering CPR to the man and transferring him to a U.S. Coast Guard rescue boat and the Boston Fire Department, who rushed him to the hospital, the MTM Dublin crew member died from the fall.

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Fisherman John Abraham, a friend of the America’s crew, told WFXT Boston 25 News that finding the man with flashlights was like finding a needle in a haystack.

"That’s all they had," Abraham said. "Some of (the boats) have big spotlights, but they didn’t have spotlights."

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A rescue boat crew from USCG Station Boston responded to the scene at 4:30 a.m. The America transferred the man to the rescue boat crew, who brought him to shore, officials said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.