March 28, 2018 — HONOLULU — The owner of a fishing vessel that sank off Hawaii over the weekend said Tuesday two massive rogue waves hit the boat, swamping it and forcing the crew to abandon ship.

One wave hit the back of the of the 61-foot (19-meter) fishing vessel, the Princess Hawaii, and another hit the side, said owner Loc Nguyen in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. The boat was hundreds of miles off the coast of Hawaii’s Big Island at the time.

“It was so big, they’ve never seen that before,” Nguyen said. There was “too much water on the top and it went down.”

Nguyen said the fishing crew had already set about 15 miles (24 kilometers) of line when the waves crashed, knocking five workers into the water. He said the captain, a federal observer and another crew member had been inside and were able to deploy the vessel’s life raft.

The eight people aboard were rescued by the vessel’s sister ship about 12 hours later. No injuries were reported.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the NY Daily News